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_4.- 




A HISTORY 



Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 

1741 — 1892 

WITH 

SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS FOUNDERS 

AND 

THEIR EARLY ACTIVITY IN AMERICA 



JOSEPH MORTIMER LEVERING 

ffiisbop of tbc /ffioravian Cburcb 

PRESIDENT OF THE MORAVIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
AND FORMERLY ARCHIVIST AT BETHLEHEM 



ISSUED AS A MEMORIAL VOLUME BY THE SESQUI-CENTENNIAL 

COMMITTEE OF THE MORAVIAN CONGREGATION 

OF BETHLEHEM 



Bethlehem, Pa. 

TIMES PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Printers and Publishers 

1903 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copios Received 

JAN 4 1904 

CLASS n- XXc. No. 
1 / I I t. 
' COPY 3 



COPYRIGHT, 1903, 

BY 

XHE CONGREGATION OF UNIXED BRETEHtEN 

OE THE BOROUGH OF BETHLEHEM 

AND ITS VTCINrrY. 



<^ 



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V^ 



PROLOGUE. 



It is but justly due the advance subscribers of "A History of 
Bethlehem" that a foreword on the part of the Committee to which 
had been entrusted the preparation of this, the crowning feature of 
the Sesqui-Centennial celebration of the founding of the town, should 
partake of at least an apologetic flavor. 

The passing of a full decade before the fulfillment of the task was 
due, in part, to the long-continued illness of Prof. Edwin G. Klose, 
who had assumed the greater part of the many details involved in 
the projection of the Volume and who, almost to the day of his 
death, had cherished the hope that returning health would enable 
him to contribute to its pages the main part of the work. His regret- 
table demise, occurring before he was able even to pen a chapter 
thereof, led to the devolvement of the task upon the Rt. Rev. J. 
Mortimer Levering, then one of the pastors of the Moravian Church 
at Bethlehem, custodian of the Archives at this place, and signally 
qualified to bring the work to a successful issue. 

Although given occasional respite from his pastoral duties, oft 
recurring periods of ill health and bodily suffering disabled him from 
persistent application to this work, requiring as it did a close study 
of manuscript material, rendered trying and laborious alike by its 
dififuseness and by its frequent approach to illegibility. 

The result of his labors embodied in these pages, the Committee 
believes, will be found by the reader to fully compensate for the 
delay. Indeed the delay has made possible what could otherwise not 
have been accomplished, viz., an authoritative history based on origi- 
nal documents and manuscript sources. 

He has treated the history of the town without any undue attempt 
at conciseness, yet, in the carrying out of his work, he stops short of 
fatiguing elaboration ; he maintains, moreover, the dignity commen- 
surate with the high aims had in view by the first settlers of Bethle- 
hem, so that they only will be disappointed who may look for a collec- 
tion of amusing tales recounting the eccentricities or failings of some 
of the worthies of a century and more ago. On the other hand, the 



student of history will find in this monograph an important contri- 
bution to the secular and religious history of our country. 

The many illustrations with which the volume is embellished are, 
in a great number of instances, reproductions of rare prints, manu- 
scripts and drawings and materially enhance the value of the book. 

Abraham S. Schropp, 
Charles H. Eggert, 
Henry T. Clauder, 
Joseph A. Rice, 
Robert Rau, 
J. Samuel Krause, 
William V. Knauss, 
J. Taylor Hamilton, 
Harvey W. Kessler. 
Bethlehem, Pa., Jttne 25th, 1903. 



PREFACE. 

Bethlehem, being a town with a past far from common-place, has 
been much and variously written about from its beginning to the 
present time. 

Correct historical and descriptive information has never been 
entirely lacking, and has increased in recent years, but more 
numerous have been the pubHshed accounts which have propagated 
erroneous ideas, hard to eradicate, in regard to former institutions 
and usages of the place and to the Church that founded it. These 
have been lauded and traduced, idealized and caricatured according 
to the knowledge or fancy, animus or object of different writers, and 
usually the most unreal elements of these diversified views have the 
firmest hold on the popular mind. 

Many persons yet derive all their notions of Bethlehem from 
fantastic portrayals of "Moravian customs," for the entertainment 
of newspaper readers, by imaginative correspondents who continue 
to devise variations of the theme and occasionally to freshen it with 
newly-invented features. Such stock terms as strange people, 
quaint community, interesting brotherhood, which even in olden 
times expressed conceptions largely fanciful and are as little appli- 
cable to the Moravian Church now as to other churches of Bethle- 
hem, had become tiresome before the place ceased, half a century 
ago, to be what it is still often styled in print, a Moravian town. 

Since the modern examination of Moravian archives in Pennsyl- 
vania and the writing of history from these sources began about 
fifty years ago, the publications of the Moravian Historical Society, 
with many other books and pamphlets, contain much matter about 
Bethlehem, but scattered through more general history or given in 
disconnected treatment of specialties. Very little of it extends beyond 
the first fifty years, much of it serves rather a mere antiquarian curi- 
osity or reminiscent fancy, and some has been superseded by maturer 
work resulting from a more thorough study of records. 

Meanwhile, nothing that can be called a history of Bethlehem 
has appeared. 

The volume of miscellany from historical documents, official state- 
ments, tourists' descriptions and village tales, called "Bethlehem and 



the Moravians," published in 1873, by John Hill Martin, "entirely for 
amusement," is not a connected history and remains without the 
corrections which would doubtless have been made in a second 
edition. 

The Rev. William C. Reichel was engaged in 1876, at "A Memorial 
Volume of the Bethlehems by way of a Centennial Record," adver- 
tised to be issued by August 15, of that year, but his lamented death 
in October left the task unaccomplished. His notes were subse- 
quently utilized in a variety of ways — a few of them in a history of 
Northampton County, compiled in 1877, for which Bishop Edmund 
de Schweinitz furnished a section on early Bethlehem in addition to 
what the compilation contains in other parts. 

The desire for a more complete history of the town, which, in 1892, 
revived the project of a Memorial Volume, will perhaps be met to 
a fair degree by the present work, completed after a long delay and 
under peculiar difficulties. It having eventually taken the form of 
a history from one hand instead of a collection of monographs, as 
at one time proposed, the absence of fuller specializing under that 
plan is possibly compensated for by the advantage of a more closely- 
woven, consecutive body of matter. 

Only first sources have been used in what pertains to Moravian 
affairs in America and to all Bethlehem events prior to the middle of 
the nineteenth century. After that, so far as possible, only those 
written and printed statements have been followed which, in the 
nature of things, could be relied upon. 

While entire absence of errors is not presumed, many obscurities, 
inaccuracies and contradictions in extant history have been corrected. 

The length of the chapters, embracing epochs and periods, may 
seem to bury many details of interest in the mass, but it is beUeved 
that the careful indexing of subjects and names separately, which has 
been prepared by an assistant, will make amends for this. 

The writer ventures the hope that the work may, on the whole, 
not be disappointing to those who have been awaiting it. 

J. M. Levering. 
January, 1903. 



PRINCIPAL SOURCES. 



[The manuscripts — all originals or authentic contemporaneous copies, and mostly 
German — are named, not by exact titles, but in a general, somewhat explanatory 
way, and, for brevity, in classified groups. Printed works are likewise briefly men- 
tioned and an asterisk marks those in which the matter used consists of published 
original documents having all the authority of first sources for ordinary purposes.] 

MANUSCRIPTS. 

Diaries. — General Moravian diary of Bethlehem, 1742-1900; diaries of Single 
Brethren's House, 1744-1814, and Sisters' House, 1748-1844; George Neisser's 
notes, Georgia and Pennsylvania, 1734-1742; J. P. Meurer's journal en route with 
Sea Congregation and later, 1742-1744; Neisser and Hoepfner's journals. Second 
Sea Congregation, 1743; Henry Miller's memoranda, 1 742-1 745; journals, Beth- 
lehem itinerants among Indians and settlers, 1742- 1762. 

Official Minutes. — General Moravian Executive Board in Pennsylvania 
under successive titles — after 1782 Provincial Helpers' and General Helpers' Con- 
ference and after 1855 Provincial Elders' Conference — 1744-1857; Bethlehem 
Boards of Elders, Stewards, Supervisors {Aii/seker), etc., School Boards and Con- 
gregation Councils, 1742-1851 (Elders and Parochial School Directors to 1892); 
early records, District School (incomplete) and sundry extracts and reports. Public 
Schools, 1836-1872. 

Synodical Records. — Pennsylvania Synods, first union, and after 1748 ex- 
clusively Moravian, 1 742-1 835 ; General Synods, Moravian Church (Europe), 1736- 
1836. 

Personal Records.— Autobiographies— Peter Boehler, Martin Mack, John 
Boehner, and other pioneers — and numerous memoirs filed in archives and entered 
in register, Moravian Church. 

Correspondence. — Bethlehem officials with European General Moravian 
Board, 1742-1857; and with civil and military authorities of Pennsylvania, New 
York, New jersey, and Nation, more than a century. 

Miscellaneous. — Lists of Moravian Immigrants, 1 735-1 800; historical 
reminiscences at laying of corner-stone, Nazareth Hall, by Peter Boehler; account 
of Revolutionary times by John Ettwein ; sundry statements, petitions and appeals 
during Revolution ; history, Moravian property and finances, by Lewis David de 
Schweinitz ; legal opinions, advice and instructions, Lewis Weiss, Benjamin Chew, 
Horace Binney, and others; maps, drafts, surveys abstracts of title, deeds and 
other conveyances; sundry account books, 1744-1851, of general management, 
schools and industries; annual reviews and statistics, 1742-1S92. 



viii PRINCIPAL SOURCES. 

PRINTED WORKS. 

Principal writers, from 1771 (Cranz) to 1895, on the Unitas Fratrum — general 
history and special subjects. 

*Buedingsche Sammlungen (Buedingen Collections), issued 1742-1744. 

*Authentische Relation, etc., account of the First Pennsylvania Synod with various 
related documents, 1742. 

*Zinzendorf's Peri Eautou or Naturelle Ref^exiones, 1746. 

*Acta Fratrum Unitatis in Anglia, 1749. 

*Spangenberg's Declaration ueber Beschuldigungen, Darlegung richtiger .A.nt- 
worten and Apologetische Schluss-Schrift, 1751. 

Spangenberg's Life of Zinzendorf, 1772. 

Risler's Life of Spangenberg, 1794. 

♦Autobiographies, Bishop Spangenberg, Nicholas Garrison, John Christopher 
Pyrlaeus, Frederick William von Marschall, John Hecke welder, and others in 
Nachrichten aus der Bruedergemeine. 

Benham's Memoirs of James Hutton, 1856. 

♦Pennsylvania Archives and Colonial Records. 

■-■Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania and Register. 

*Occasional items in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 

Local newspaper files in Bethlehem Archives; Die Biene, 1846-1S4S; The 
Moravian, 1856-1892; The Bethlehem Advocate and the Lehigh Valley Times, 
between 1858 and 1861 ; The Bethlehem Times, 1874-1892. 

*Official publications of institutions and corporations of Bethlehem and South 
Bethlehem. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introduction. — The Pennsylvania Experiment — Seventeenthi Century Con- 
ditions — Persecution — Early Settlements, Dutch, Swedish, English — Penn's 
Province — Religious Turmoil — Moravian Pioneers — Praised and Defamed — 
Their Gospel of Peace, ......... Pages i-6 

CHAPTER II. 
The Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, 1457-1735. 

Origin and Name — Hussite Parties — Brethren found Association — Are Op- 
pressed — Principles and Organization — Episcopate — Developed System — 
Affinities — Persecution — Education — Hymnology — Bible Translation — 
Confessions of Faith — Utter Suppression — Friendship of England — Come- 
nius — American Prospects — Resuscitation — Christian David and Zinzendorf — 
Moravians to Saxony — Herrnhut — Plans of Zinzendorf — Clerical Assaults — 
Zinzendorf reads Comenius — Deputation to England — Adjustment to State 
Church — Missionaries to the Heathen — American Settlement Planned — 
Jablonsky transfers Episcopate — David Nitschmann founds Church in 
America Pages 7-30 

CHAPTER III. 
From Herrnhut to the Forks of the Delaware, 1735-1740. 

American Plans — Georgia and Pennsylvania — First Moravians — Skippack 
Union — Attempt in South Carolina — Georgia Abandoned — Moravians with 
Whitefield to Pennsylvania — Christopher Wiegner, Henry Antes — Whitefield's 
Nazareth Plan — Employs Moravians — Arrival in the Forks — Region Described 
— Scotch-Irish Settlements — William Allen — Indian Complications — Walking 
Purchase — Moravians commence Nazareth House— Disagreement with White- 
field — Nathaniel Irish offers them Land on the Lehigh — Bishop David Nitsch- 
mann and Company arrive — First Christmas at Nazareth — Site Selected on 
the Lehigh — First Tree Felled — The Spring at the Monocacy, . Pages 31-58 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Settlement Founded and Named, 1741. 

Missionary Beginnings— Indians of Welagameka — Captain John and Christian 
Froehlich — Allen Tract on the Lehigh finally Selected — Building Operations 
Commenced — Land Purchased for Moravians by Antes — First House Built — 
Journeys and Visitors — Pioneers remove to Allen Tract — A Busy Summer — 
First Preaching and Communion — Lovefeasts and Prayer-days — The Com- 
munity House — Sectarians and Fanatics visit the Forks — George Neisser's 
Records — Count Zinzendorf arrives in America — Screeds and Pasquinades — 
Zinzendorf at Philadelphia — Visits Henry Antes — Evangelical Alliance 
Planned — Reaches the Forks — A Memorable Christmas Eve — The Name 
Bethlehem, Pages 59-79 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 
Connecting Events and the Sea Congregation, 1742. 

Zinzendorf's Tour through the Country — Sects Encountered — He settles in 
Philadelphia — Plans for Pennsylvania — Confusion and Strife — He distin- 
guishes Religions and Sects — His Scheme Elucidated — His Conception of the 
Moravian Church — His Ecclesiastical Status — Entanglements of Rank — 
Insult and Calumny — Proposes to renounce Rank and Title — Preaches for 
Lutherans in Philadelphia — Crusade of Rev. John Philip Boehm — Pyrlaeus 
Mobbed — The Bechtel Catechism — The Hirten Lieder — Antes calls Con- 
ference of Religions — The Seven Conferences Treated — Zinzendorf as Moder- 
ator — Excited Opposition — His Course Misrepresented — Use of the Lot 
Explained — First Moravian School in Germantown — The " Sea Congregation" 
arrives — Attracts Attention at Philadelphia — Joins Pennsylvania Synod — 

Names of Colony with Notes Pages 80-126 

CHAPTER VL 
From the Organization to the Return of Spangenberg, 1742-1744. 
The Colony reaches Bethlehem — Community House Chapel Dedicated — Con- 
gregation Organized — The Sabbath Question Discussed — First Arrangements 

— Officials and Functionaries — Pharmacy and Dispensary — Postal Arrange- 
ments — Organization of Labor — The Prayer Bands — A Typical Sunday — 
First Interment in Cemetery — Baptism of Indians Described — Community 
House Enlarged — First Decorative Art — First Hospital and Tavern — Flans 
for the Barony of Nazareth — Boarding Schools Planned — Bethlehem People 
Misunderstood by Neighbors — Zinzendorf 's Tours in the Indian Country — 
Second Christmas at Bethlehem — Zinzendorf 's Departure — Ad Iiitenin Ar- 
rangements — First Grist-mill and Ferry — Whitefield House Finished — The 
Demented Hardie — School of Indian Languages — Nazareth Colony arrives 

— Early Musical Instruments — Musicians Organized — Single Men's House 
Built — Missionaries Oppressed in New York — Spangenberg returns to Beth- 
lehem, Pages 127-177 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Economy During Spangenberg's First Term, 1745-174S. 

Spangenberg's General Plan — The Economy — Popular Misapprehensions — 
Detailed Organization — Henry Antes Superintendent of E.xternals — Organized 
Labor — System of Accounts — Labor Made Pleasant— Idyllic Scenes— Mur- 
murers — The Herrnhaag Extravagances — Zinzendorf 's Connection There- 
with — The Climax — Herrnhaag Abandoned — Fanaticism slightly affects 
Bethlehem — Success of Co-operative Union — Crown Inn Built — First Semi- 
nary— Industries Developed— Indian Converts from New York build Friedens- 
huetten — Small-pox Scourge — Missionary Society Formed — Mills Built — 
Brethren's House Built — The Irene Built and Launched — Local Improvements 
— Culture, Medicinal Herbs — Polyglot Song Service — Collegium Musicum — 
Notes on 'Various Schools — First School South Side of River — The Old Man's 
Place — Henry Antes Justice of the Peace — Complications with Neighbors — 
Bethlehem Township Formed — Legal Status of Moravians — Acts of Parlia- 



CONTENTS. XI 

ment 1747 and 1749 — Bishop de Watteville comes to 15ethlehem — Official 
Changes Made — Spangenberg retires, .... Pages 178-229 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Course of Things to the Indian Raid, 1749-1755. 

De Watteville's Labors and Journeys — Schools Reorganized— John Nitsch- 
mann supersedes Spangenberg — Greenlanders at Bethlehem — The Jones 
Farm — English Cloth-weavers come to Bethlehem — David Brainerd and his 
Indians — Gilbert Tennent denounces Moravians — Unique Service at Bethle- 
hem — Greenlanders, Arawacks, Indians, Negroes — Gnadenhuetten Indians — 
Teedyuscung — Meniolagomeka — John Nitschmann's Administration Object 
tionable — Antes leaves Bethlehem — Nitschmann's Arbitrary Course — Presen- 
Old Chapel Built — Sister's House Enlarged — Grist-mill Rebuilt — New Phar- 
macy — Store in Horsfield House — Indian House at Monocacy — The Nazareth 
Road — John Nitschmann Recalled to Europe — Spangenberg returns to 
Bethlehem — Easton Founded — William Parsons — Northampton County 
Erected — Moravian Properties Secured — Individual Proprietor and Adminis- 
trator — Financial Crisis in Europe— Nazareth Hall Built — The Family House 

— Proposed New Bethlehem Tavern — The Little Irene — The Bethlehem 
Water-works — Silk Worms — General Economy Reorganized — Death of Henry 
Antes, Daniel Brodhead and James Burnside — Approaching Indian 
Troubles, Pages 230-296 

CHAPTER IX. 
Bethlehem During the Indian Uprising, 1755-1756. 

Braddock's Defeat Announced at Bethlehem — ■ Moravians Accused of Furnish- 
ing Arms and Ammunition to Indians — Teedyuscung tries to allure Moravian 
Indians — Frederick Post alone in Wyoming — Wild Stories Circulated — Be- 
ginning of Violence in Eastern Pennsylvania — First Refugees to Bethlehem — 
Moravian Settlements in Danger — Massacre at Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoning 

— This vindicates Moravian Missionaries — Bethlehem becomes a City of 
Refuge — Spangenberg urges Building Fort at Lehigh Gap — Franklin com- 
mands Frontier Defences — Women and Children Concentrated at Bethlehem 

— Savages plan Attack — Dreaded Christmas safely Passed — Impatience of 
Franklin and Authorities with Panic Stricken Settlers — They burden Bethlehem 
heavily — Spangenberg pleads their Cause — Assembly objects to Expenses 
for Keeping Indians at Bethlehem by Order of Government — Bickerings of 
Public Men jeopardize Life and Property — Bounty for Scalps Proclaimed — • 
Teedyuscung Dreaded at Bethlehem, Pages 297-343 

CHAPTER X. 
To the End of the General Economy, 1756-1762. 

Bethlehem Escapes — Christian Indians of much Service — Great Council at 
Easton — Tranquility Preserved at Bethlehem — Nazareth Hall Dedicated — 
Peter Boehler returns to Bethlehem — Nain Built for Christian Indians — 
Neighbors object — Teedyuscung Permitted to spend Winter at Bethlehem — 
Leaves in the Spring of 1758 — His Melancholy End — Sun Inn Built — • Post's 
Services to the Government — Close of Indian War — Church Ship Irene Captured 



Xii CONTENTS. 

and Sunk — Klemm and Tanneberger Organ Builders — Death of Father Nitsch- 
mann — Plans to dissolve General Economy — School Opened in. Nazareth 
Hall — Founding of Wechquetank — Small-pox — Many Visitors — Descriptions 
Recorded — A New Church Ship. The Hope — Problems Involved in Dissolu- 
tion of General Economy — The Task is Consummated — Departure of Bishop 
Spangenberg for Europe Pages 344-385 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Decade to the Second Re-org.\nization, 1762-1771. 

Personal Changes — Post and Heckevvelder to Ohio — Distinguished Visitors — 
Topography in 1762 — New Water-works — Indian Troubles again Brewing 

— Demand for Removal of Indians from Nain and Wechquetank — Threats 
against Bethlehem — Cowardly Murder of Indians by Captain Wetterhold's 
Militia — Retaliation by Savages at Stenton's Tavern — The Wounded Captain 
dies at the Crown Inn — Bethlehem again Stockaded for Defence — Oil Mill 
Burned by Incendiaries — First Fire Engine in America Brought to Bethlehem 

— Indians of Wechquetank and Nain Removed to Philadelphia — Mob and Riot 
in the City — Designs of the Paxton Rangers — Indians Brought Back to Beth- 
lehem — Klein's Stage-wagon to Philadelphia — Beginning of Allentown — 
Many Visitors — Industrial Progress — New Oil Mill — Widows' House Built 

— Widow's Society Founded — Friedensthal — Brandmiller's Printing-press — 
Founding of Hope, New Jersey — Re-organization of Bethlehem — Financial 
Settlements Pages 386-425 

CHAPTER XII. 
Into the Depths of Revolutionarv Trouble, 1772-1778. 

The New Order — Industrial Developments — Calumnies about Moravians — 
Visitors and Tourists — Death of Bishop David Nitschmann — Inoculation for 
Small-pox Introduced— Political Excitement — Standpoint of Moravians Eluci- 
dated — The War begins — First Troops pass through Bethlehem — Declara- 
tion of Independence — Arms Searched for — Prayer for King Omitted in 
Litany — Brethren's House Taken for Hospital — Soldiers Buried West of 
Monocacy - Threats against Bethlehem — A Night of Peril — Moravians Mis- 
construed — Petty Tyranny of County Lieutenant Wetzel — Prisoners Quartered 
upon Bethlehem — Military Stores arrive— Liberty Bell m Bethlehem— Members 
of Congress from Philadelphia— Lafayette at the Beckel House — Congressional 
Order of Protection — Brethren's House again a Hospital — Invasion of Rabble 

— Value of Trustworthy Soldiers — Supplies Furnished by Moravians — Malig- 
nant Fever in Crowded Hospital — The Dead no longer Counted — Contagion 
spreads in the Town — Riotous Milkia — Imposition by Minor Officers — The 
Town Relieved — Hospital Closed Pages 426-483 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Through the Revolution to Another Re-organization, 1778-1785. 
Prominent Men in Bethlehem — Tract Against " Quakers and Bethlehemites "— 
Count Pulaski at Bethlehem — His Famous Banner - General Riedesel and 
Family — Brunswick Troops — Exorbitant Prices — Martha Washington in 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

Bethlehem — Refugees from Wyoming — Tradesmen Harassed by County 
Lieutenant and Squires — Moravians at Emmaus Arrested — Marched Through 
Bethlehem as a Spectacle — Such Activity Financially Profitable — Allentown 
Squires summon all the Men of Bethlehem — Higher Authorities advise that it 
be Ignored — Squires threaten Ettwein — Discussion at Bethlehem on the 
Test Act — General Washington's Nephew in Bethlehem — Bishop John Fred- 
erick Reichel arrives — Position to be Taken by Moravian Villages — Recogni- 
tion of New Government — Official Changes — General Washington visits 
Bethlehem — More Distinguished Foreigners — The Marquis de Chastelloux — ' 
Captain Paul Jones at Bethlehem — Deals with Rufifians at Crown Inn — Ruin 
of Missions in Ohio — Slaughter of Christian Indians at Gnadenhuetten — Death 
of Bishop Nathanael Seidel — Dr. Schoepf 's Description of Bethlehem — Thanks- 
giving Service after Treaty of Peace — Rehabilitation of Industries — Bishop 
de Watteville arrives to Re-organize Work — Rigid Exclusivism Introduced — 
Boarding-schools at Bethlehem and Nazareth Re-established, Pages 484-535 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Two Decades Under the Close Regime, 1786-1806. 

Spirit of the Age Felt — Combated by Stringent Rules — Fiftieth Anniversary 
of Bethlehem — Official Changes Reviewed — Postmasters and Physicians — 
The Sun Inn and Mail Stage — First Lehigh Bridge — Ferry and Crown Inn 
Abandoned — New Store — New Building for Boarding-school — Visitors — 
John Penn the Poet — Duke de la Rochefoucauld — Society for Propagating 
the Gospel — Correspondence with President Washington — Indian Chiefs at 
Bethlehem — Moravian Ministers preach in Surrounding Countrj' — Churches 
Dedicated — Political Turbulence — The Fries Insurrection — ■ Memorial Ser- 
vices, Death of Washington — Proposition to build a Large Church — Long 
Delay and Many Plans — Building Commenced — Laying of Corner-stone 

— Original Form of Church Described — The Organ — The Church Con- 
secrated, Pages 536-582 

CHAPTER XV.* 
The Beginning of Modernizing Movements, 1807-1825. 

Climax of Close Regime — Moravian Village Culture — Music — Decay of Old 
System — Hope, New Jersey, Abandoned — Theological Seminary Founded — 
Unfortunate Controversies — Domineering Paternalism — Organization of Single 
Men declines — Death of Bishop Loskiel — Official Complications — Brethren's 
House Abandoned — Converted into Boarding-school — Day-schools Discussed 

— School Board Organized — School House on Cedar Street Built— Contro- 
versy with Administrator on Sale of Land — Clamor for Change of System — 
Antiquated Customs Abolished — Sunday-school Work Begun — Women's 
Missionary Society — Northampton County Bible Society — Neighborhood 
Church Dedications — External Changes — Eagle Hotel — Mercantile Enter- 
prises — Industries Sold — Administrator Cunow Removed from Office — Suc- 
ceeded by Lewis David de Schweinitz — Land Controversy Settled — Close 
Regime Broken Pages 583-639 

* Erratum. Two chapters of manuscript were consolidated without changing the numbering of the next 
three. XVI-XVIII, in the volume, should be XV-XVII. 



Xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Transition from Church-Village to Borough, i 826-1 845. 

Reconstruction Planned — Marks of Progress — Coal Industries— The Canal — 
Old South Bethlehem — Fourth of July, 1 826 — American Colonization Society 

— Young Men's Missionary Society — Home Mission Society — Financial De- 
pression— Complications with Leases — Public Schools — Bleck's Academy — 
Philharmonic Society — Bethlehem Bands— Village Government— The Water- 
works — The Fire Department — Goepp's Financial Policy — Properties Sold — 
Associations of Sand Island — Historic Industries — Great Freshet. 1 841 — Beth- 
lehem's Centennial — Financial Crash — Abolition of Lease System — Incor- 
poration of Borough Pages 640-682 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Three Decades of Progress, i 846-1876. 

Ground-rents and Sales — Moravian Church Re-organization — Division of 
Property — Changes in Church Buildings— Nisky Hill Cemetery — Beginnings 
of Other Churches in Bethlehem — Other Religious Work — Young Men's 
Christian Association — New Parochial School Building — Van Kirk's Academy 

— Schwartz's Academy — Public Schools and Teachers — Music and Art — The 
Press of the Bethlehems— Municipal Improvements — Hotels— Island — Boats 

— Piano Factory — Brass Works, Pages 683-717 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Three Decades of Progress, Continued, 1846-1876. 

South Side Beginnings — Farms Sold — The Water Cure — Fontainebleau — 
The Zinc Works — Railroads — Iron Industries — Proposed Government 
Foundry — Bethlehem Iron Company — South Bethlehem Incorporated — Gas 
and Water Company — South Bethlehem Schools — Lehigh University — Bishop- 
thorpe — St. Luke's Hospital — South Bethlehem Churches — New Street and 
Broad Street Bridges — Great Freshet, 1862 — Railroads, North Side — Banks 

— Post-office— The Civil War — First Troops from Bethlehem — War-time Ad- 
vertising — Moravian Woolen Mills — Impressive Scenes — Union League — 
Battle of Gettysburg— Christian Commission — Close of the War — Decoration 
Day— Grand Army Post — National Centennial, . . . Pages 718-754 

CHAPTER XIX. 
A Century and a Half Completed, 1877-1892. 

Features of New Period — Small-pox Epidemic— Borough of West Bethlehem 

— West Side Schools and Churches — Industrial Progress — Silk Mills — Electric 
Light — Street Improvement — New Bridge Projects — Electric Cars — Fire and 
Water Departments — New School Houses — New Theological Seminary — 
Musical Achievements — Anniversaries — Comenius Celebration — Columbus 
Celebration — Sesqui-Centennial of Bethlehem — Municipal and Ecclesiastical 
Preparations — Festival Described — Zinzendorf Bi-Centenary — Close of Nine- 
teenth Century, Pages 755-776 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

THE THREE CHURCHES, . . Frontispiece , 
ANCIENT SEAL OF THE UNITAS 

FRATRUM, 5 

EPISCOPAL SEAL, 1902 6 

COUNT ZTNZENDORF, 20 

DAVID NITSCHMANN, (Episc). . . 30 
CERTIFICATE OF SAVANNAH LOTS, . 33 

PETER BOEHLER, 38 

THE WHITEFIELD HOUSE 53^ 

THE FIRST HOUSE OF BETHLEHEM, 60 

DAVID NITSCHMANN, (Sen.) ... 64 

TITLE PAGE OF TEXT BOOK, 1767, . 120 
PAGE OF BETHLEHEM DIARY, . . .134 

FRENCH HORN, 172 

AUG G. SPANGENBERG 178 ^ 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . . 184 . 
GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . . 190 ■ 

CROWN INN RELICS, 229- 

--ITINERARY MAP OF PENNA., . . . 236 - 
APOTHECARY'S UTENSILS, 1752, . . 256 
INDIANS' HOUSES AND BAPTISM, . . 258 
GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 266 

THE FAMILY HOUSE, 284 

BETHLEHEM, 1750, 1755, ... .290 

TROMBONE, 331 

PLOT OF 1757, 344 

INDIANS' SIGNATURES, . . . .346 
BETHLEHEM LANDS, 1761, . . .352 

BETHLEHEM, 1757, 358 

THE SUN INN, 360 

ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE 

INDIANS, 368 

COMMUNION SERVICE, 385 

PLAN OF BETHLEHEM, 1758, . . .391 

FIRE ENGINE, 400 

WIDOWS' HOUSE VIEWS 410 

BETHLEHEM, 1767, 1784, 430 

FIRST HOUSE AND ADJOINING 

BUILDING OF 1776, 443 

ORDER OF SAFE-GUARD 466 

LETTER FROM GEN. WASHINGTON, . 478 
JOHN ETTWEIN VS. COL. CROPPER, . 480 
LETTER OF HORATIO GATES, . . .491 

JOHN ETTWEIN, 504 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, .... 518 



PAGE. 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 522 
YOUNG LADIES' SEMINARY OF 1790, . 550 
LETTER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, . 518 

BETHLEHEM, 1793, 1795 564 

THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, 1806, . . 576 
GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . .580 

BETHLEHEM, 1805, 1810 582 

MORAVIAN COLLEGE AND THEOLOG- 
ICAL SEMINARY, 592 

BETHLEHEM, 1810 594 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . .598 
BETHLEHEM, 1830, 1848, .... 628 

STAGE LINE, 630 

CALYPSO ISLAND, 1832 632 

EAGLE HOTEL, 634 

BETHLEHEM, 640 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . .662 

CHARLES D. BISHOP, 666 

CALYPSO ISLAND, 1850, 668 

XMOUNTAIN PATH AND THE SPRING, 670 

MAIN STREET, 1842, 672 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 674 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS 680 

BETHLEHEM, 1850, 1851, . . . .682 

MONOCACY VIEWS 684 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 686 
BETHLEHEM, 1852, . .... 688 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . .694 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS 700 

SCHOOL BUILDINGS, 704 

FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSE, . . 706 

BETHLEHEM VIEWS 708 

MAIN STREET, 710 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 714 
THE SOUTH SIDE, 1852, 1872, . . .718 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS 720 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS 726 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .... 728 

FRANCIS WOLLE, 732 

THE FRESHET OF 1862, . . .736 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS. . ' . .746 
EDM. A. DE SCHWEINITZ, . . .752 
TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS, . . 760 
TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS, 762 

GROUP OF PORTRAITS, . . . .764 



CHAPTER I. 



Introduction. 

Pennsylvania stood foremost among the primitive commonwealths 
of the United States in presenting favorable conditions to many kinds 
of particular associations and undertakings. Therefore it most 
readily afforded a home to a settlement like Bethlehem, unique in 
some striking features but in its essential and lasting characteristics 
fully at one with the best elements of the Province. 

It is proposed to treat of the origin, founding and growth of this 
settlement viewed not in its isolation but in its connections, ante- 
cedent and contemporary. Accordingly the effort may properly be 
introduced by a cursory survey of the situation previously developed 
in the Province. 

Cosmopolitan ideas, broad tolerance and philanthropy entered 
conspicuously into the large plans on which the Province was founded, 
and the severe tests to which the hosts attracted by the proffered 
liberty subjected them worked out problems of vital importance. 
Discordant and rival elements abused the privileges and so tried the 
ideal scheme that for a time its failure seemed inevitable, but the 
people thus brought together learned finally that they could afifiliate 
and produced a result that fulfilled the dreams and vindicated the 
faith of the projectors. This, in brief, was the process of the colonial 
period of Pennsylvania to which so many races and languages, so 
many social and religious factors, such a variety of special designs and 
movements contributed. 

In the bold venture to invite together such a heterogeneous mass, 
with so little discrimination or restriction, and to undertake the fusion 
of this mass into a composite citizenship on the principle that the 
greatest good of the greatest number must be sought in all things, 
Penn with his commonwealth anticipated the future great Republic. 
The Pennsylvania experiment was in this respect the first lesson in 
what would be the experiment of the Nation. 

Its plan took high rank among the products of advanced thought 
in that age in which the modern structures of Christian civilization 



2 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

were slowly arising out of the chaotic ruins left by the Thirty-years' 
War. Nowhere in the new world did peoples directly involved in 
those protracted religious and political struggles of the seventeenth 
century figure so largely as in the region entered through the gate- 
way of the Delaware River. The pioneers of its earliest settlements 
bore the flags of two nations which were prominent during those 
troublous decades as advocates of humane principles and as friends 
of the helpless and the down-trodden, the fugitive and the exile. 

Holland, the first to colonize on the shores of the Delaware, had 
a keen eye to material gain and less to say, in proclamations, charters 
and advertisements, than some other nations, about propagating the 
gospel, but was beyond any other the refuge of persecuted religion- 
ists chased Hke hunted beasts from one dominion to another; and, 
having suffered so grievously herself, turned a sympathizing ear to 
the cry of the bleeding masses over whose heads the chariots of war 
had so long rolled to and fro. 

There, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, Puritans 
and Quakers, Mennonites, Labadists and Tunkers found shelter 
and received help to cross the ocean. Thither fled multitudes from 
the Rhine Palatinate, from Silesia and the North German country, 
together with impoverished Waldenses and exiles from Bohemia and 
Moravia, bereft of everything to live from or worth living for at home, 
and glad to find a spot where even bare existence was possible. 

The salt of the land, sturdy yeomanry from the desolate fields, in- 
telligent craftsmen and skilled artisans from the ruined cities and the 
villages sacked and burned, nobles of ancient name reduced to beg- 
gary, learned schoolmen, philosophers and theologians made up 
those expatriated hosts who were fed and clothed in the Netherlands, 
where the conviction that all men were created equal produced the 
leading efifort of the time to educate the masses, accorded to men 
the right to have a conscience, permitted them to think and express 
their thoughts, to formulate the many-sided truth as they appre- 
hended it, and to worship God in the manner that satisfied their minds 
and hearts. 

How numerousl}' these mixed multitudes, who caught new breath 
and learned to hope again in Holland, entered into the early popula- 
tion of Pennsylvania, and how largely by the help of Holland they 
reached this country, history has often told. The settlement to be 
called New Amstel, which later became New Castle on the Dela- 
ware, elaborately planned by the Dutch during their second brief 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

occupation of the region, was to be especially an asylum for such, 
and the Dutch West India Company expected great advantage to 
the colony by the acquisition of settlers like these, with character 
which could neither be bought nor crushed. 

Sweden's more substantial settlements on the Delaware originated 
in the plans of the great Gustavus Adolphus, who, as the ultimate 
champion of the Protestant forces, had given the decisive turn to 
the struggles of the time. He not only thought to reap material 
benefit for his country and to evangelize the heathen, but also to 
offer a place of refuge beyond the sea to the sufferers of desolated 
regions and the homeless exiles whose tribulation awakened his sym- 
pathy and aroused his fiery indignation. His plans were modified 
by narrower spirits who carried them into execution after his un- 
timely and lamented death, and rigid confessionalism curtailed some- 
what the terms he would have offered to men of different creeds, 
yet his successors colonized with other aims than merely the gratifi- 
cation of avarice or political ambition. They helped to establish 
the precedent of toleration which distinguished the future Province. 
They anticipated the principle of William Penn, that the land must 
be purchased of its savage possessors or at least acquired with their 
free consent, whatever grant or patent might otherwise be held. 
They also made the first attempt to evangeHze the natives of the 
region and to translate Christian literature into their language. 

The Dutch and the Swedes did, it is true, quarrel in unseemly man- 
ner about their claims, so vague and contradictory in language, and 
both of them quarreled with the English who several times tried to 
get foothold on this middle coast before the time and the man ap- 
peared to introduce the best spirit of England, yet from the first, 
more largely than elsewhere. Christian motives and philanthropic 
impulses bore a part to be perpetuated in the first constitution of 
the "state prayer-founded" in which at last "the sectary yielded to 
the citizen and peaceful dwelt the many-creeded men." 

When finally the nation mightier than Holland or Sweden acquired 
the whole country drained by the Delaware and its tributaries and 
the power of Great Britain inspired confidence in the new order, the 
oppressed, the impoverished and the down-trodden, little benefited 
by the reconstructions thus far effected in their countries and believ- 
ing that the statements and offers of the noble-minded Proprietary 
could be trusted, began to come in by thousands ; and the long- 
mooted idea of a new, free state in which sufferers for conscience' 



4 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

sake, strugglers in the cause of liberty and enterprising home-seekers 
might find the desire of their hearts, began to be reahzed. 

Tlien it came to pass that the scheme of peace with freedom at 
first produced a spectacle of turmoil. The population increased in 
number and diversity beyond the provisions for ordering and unify- 
ing it. Many who had never known what freedom was were not 
capable of using it peaceably. There came troublesome agitators, 
reckless adventurers and worthless vagabonds who could not be kept 
out. These exerted a pernicious influence among the masses who 
had been accustomed to look upon all authority in state or church 
as tyranny to be submitted to only under sullen protest if too strong 
to be violently resisted, and consequently regarded all efforts to 
establish order as but so many acts of oppression. 

The conflicts of the generations before them having been mainly 
conflicts with ecclesiastical tyranny, these people for the most part 
held the inherited idea that religious liberty was the greatest boon 
to be sought. Therefore the confusion and strife which marked the 
early periods of the Pennsylvania experiment prevailed most con- 
spicuously in the domain of religion. Bigotry and intolerance were 
intensified among the adherents of the dominant confessions. A 
morbid propensity to follow pretending prophets, to indulge in mys- 
tical vagaries, to embrace startling novelties of doctrine, to become 
fanatical in specialties and to multiply conventicles was developed 
among those who turned away from the old church-establishments 
or were forced out of them by repressive measures. The atmosphere 
of the age had bred an epidemic of religious extravagancies which 
continued far into the eighteenth century. The multitude of sects 
goaded by persecution ran to extremes in the defence and promulga- 
tion of their distinctive tenets and many became the persecutors of 
each other where they could. No religious body that strove for 
something more than mere theoretical orthodoxy or outward con- 
formity to church-order escaped entirely the infection of fanaticism. 

All this, when transplanted out of the repressing conditions of the 
old world into the new Province of Pennsylvania, where all persua- 
sions could assert themselves, produced a religious babel. At the 
same time many who associated established churches with the old 
tyranny from which they had fied, while they were repelled by the 
wrangling of sects and separatists, discarded all religion and became 
practically atheists. 



INTRODUCTION. 



S 



At the most confused and uncertain stage, when those who had 
no faith in the Pennsylvania plan called the Province bedlam and 
predicted the triumph of anarchy, the men who founded Bethlehem 
appeared upon the scene to seek a place in this region of great oppor- 
tunities and to undertake their part in helping to work out the prob- 
lem of its future. They came with a definite purpose which was in 
accord with the highest aspirations of its best people. Persons of 
several nationalities were among them, but no colonists in the coun- 
try were more closely bound together. Their organization was com- 
paratively new, but they had back of them a history recalled by the 
name^ they bore which had its beginning before America was discov- 
ered ; the history of a religious body which Holland, Sweden and 
England had known as a disrupted church in exile for more than 
a hundred years. None had suffered more terribly in the Thirty- 
years' War than the spiritual fore-fathers of these men. No banner 
carried through the conflicts of the previous three hundred years was 
more pierced and rent than was their historic banner with legend 
and device- calling them to follow the Lamb whose sacrifice for 
humanity was destined to result in mighty conquests by love. 




Ancient Seal of the Unitas Fratrum. 

Now these colonists came bearing it into the new world to proclaim 
true liberty with true brotherhood under the dominion of the con- 
quering Lamb. All their undertakings were subordinate to this 
central purpose. Their position was not readily understood. Men 

1 From the first they were most commonly called ''the Moravians" by Engl.sh speaking 
people in the American colonies. 

2 The episcopal seal of the Church has upon it a shield with the figure of a lamb carrying 
a cross from which is suspended a banner of victory, and around the shield is the motto : 

Vicil Agnus noster, Eum seqiir.mur, i.e., Our Lamb hath conquered, Him let us follow. 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



differed widely in their attitude towards them, for both good report 
and evil report had preceded them across the ocean, and they were 
soon the most highly praised and the most bitterly denounced people 
in the Province. 

The material benefits which their settlement brought to the region 
were speedily recognized by those in authority. In a short time 
their name carried with it high credit in business circles. Their 
educational efforts won for them the respect of the most intelligent 
persons and their missionary activity excited the interest of the 
philanthropic, while many sick of sectarian strife were attracted by 
the preaching of their itinerants who avoided polemics. 

On the other hand a variety of misrepresentations and calumnies 
circulated in print by prejudiced and unscrupulous ecclesiastics in 
Europe found eager agents for their propagation in Pennsylvania, 
where the conditions that existed so greatly favored such work. 
One decried them as wild visionaries and dangerous fanatics. 
Another hurled denunciations at them as disseminators of grievous 
heresies. Another agitated the passage of laws against them as 
Papists in disguise. They paid little heed to these things, for their 
spiritual ancestors had encountered fiercer onslaughts than these. 

In the Indian's wigwam, in the settler's cabin, in the hut of the 
despised negro, among churchmen, sectarians and separatists of 
every nationality, creed and name, in the town and the forest, where- 
ever they found people who would listen, these men of Bethlehem 
preached the one gospel of the cross, advocated union of heart around 
this standard, with cessation of controversy on non-essential dif- 
ferences, and sought to ally the well-meaning of all parties in efforts 
for the common good. The period of their arrival and first attempts 
constituted an epoch in the religious life of the Province. 

Who were these people and whence came they? What were their 
antecedents and associations? Correct knowledge in reference to 
these questions is necessary in order to understand the history of 
Bethlehem. 




The Episcopal Seal, 1S02. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church. 
A.D. 1457-1735. 

The founders of Bethlehem represented a Church variously known 
as the Brethren's Church, the Unitas Fratrum, the Bohemian and 
Moravian Brethren, the Church of the United Brethren and the 
Moravian Church.^ It arose in the fifteenth century in the twin 
countries of Bohemia and Moravia, lying mountain-encircled in the 
heart of Europe, small in area but long the theatre of great events. 

For more than seven hundred years their history had been one of 
successive struggles for freedom and for the preservation of their 
primitive Christianity in character and form. 

What their first evangelists, Cyrill and Methodius of the Greek 
Church gave them in the ninth century ; what Rome deprived them 
of in the eleventh century, the Bohemian Reformation came so near 
restoring at the opening of the fifteenth century that the Papal 
authorities resorted to the desperate measure of burning the intrepid 
leader John Hus at the stake July 6, 141 5, to intimidate the uprising 
hosts. The subsequent contentions were partly political, partly re- 

I The original Bohemian name was Jednota Bratrska. The word Jednota means associ- 
ation of any kind. It was chosen instead of Cirkev (church) in deference to the National 
Church, as Unitas was later used as a Latin equivalent of Jednota — both meaning what is 
meant by Church in the restricted sense, as applied to single church divisions or denomina- 
tions in America. Unitas passed into German as Uni/aef. Ylenct Jedjioia Bratrska ■= Unitas 
Fratrum^Brueder Unitaet-=z Brethren's Unity, but all meaning simply Brethren's Church in 
the sense just stated. In the 18th century the Latin title was revived in negotiations with 
England, with its meaning construed to denote union ideas, in view from the first, leading to 
its selection with this especially in mind. This has been shown to be unhistorical and has 
been officially abandoned; the General Synod, since 1889, having ceased to set forth a 
sharp diflference between the terms Brethren's Church and Brethren's Unity. The German 
branch of the Church calls its corporate whole a Unitact instead of a Kirche (church) for 
reasons deemed important, but where no State Church exists there is no occasion to affect 
this oddity. Church of the United Brethren is the English title adopted in the i8th century 
when the superfluous word "united" was thought necessary to adequately render Unitas 
Fratrum. Its retention in legal titles and some Church formularies is unfortunate in ihe 

7 



8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ligious. The Four Articles of Prague (1421) which declared for 
unhindered worship and preaching in the vernacular ; the communion 
cup to the laiety; secular power taken from the clergy; discipline 
impartially maintained among all ranks and classes, became the 
general platform of the Hussite patriots. Two main parties arose. 

United States, because of confusion with a quite different modern denomination, the 
United Brethren in Christ. There being also other claimants for even the simple and 
correct name Brethren's Church, and the title Unitas Fratrum being not suited for popular 
use the name Moravian Church, gradually adopted in England and America, seems to be a 
survival of the fittest among English-speaking people. In America particularly, where 
nearly all religious bodies trace their origin to some foreign country, its use is not open to 
the same objection which a Saxon or Prussian would raise against calling his church Die 
MaehriscJie Kirche. The use of "Moravian" in America to denote ecclesiastical descent is 
sustained by the following considerations : 

1. Such a geographical or ethnical designation — Anglican, Roman, German, Moravian, Gal- 
ilean etc. like Judean, Syrian, Galatian, Roman, etc., in the primitive Church — is more consis- 
tent with the idea oionc Church Universal than special titles which either recall dissension, strife 
and schism, or obtrude some peculiarity of doctrine, polity or ritual, or suggest an eccentric con- 
venticle, or were formed from the name of a man, or were first mere epithets either ol cant 
or reproach. 

2. The "hidden seed" of the suppressed Unitas Fratrum in Moravia sprang from the 
residue of the only body which after the middle of the 17th century could be called the 
Moravian Church in the sense of local origin and character. The Utraquist Church of the 
realm was in decay, never to be revived. The Roman hierarchy was an invading foreign 
power. I he Protestant bodies under limited toleration there represented confessions and 
affiliations of neighboring states in which they originated. 

3. That "hidden seed" of Moravia principally furnished the nucleus of the first congre- 
gation with which the modern resuscitation of the Church began in Saxony. Their patron 
Count Zinzendorf continually called them " the Moravians," the Church of their fathers 
" the Moravian Church," and five of their chief men who emigrated together to seek a place 
where they might reorganize it, "the five Moravian Churchmen." 

4. Zinzendorf's scheme of combining elements fostered three historic cults which he 
called 7>o/?: /'(i-a'MJ — a Lutheran, a Reformed and a '"Moravian-Episcopal" Tropus. 
Under the latter he classed all elements in the make-up of the modern Church derived from 
the ancient Unitas. 

5. The episcopate of the Church preserved from extinction in the 17th century mainly 
through the efforts of Comenius, the most distinguished native Moravian of his time and the 
pre-eminent Moravian bishop of the Unitas, over against its Bohemian and Polish bishops, 
was passed on by his grandson, Jablonsky, to one of those five Moravian Churchmen, 
David Nitschmann, the first bishop of the Church after its resuscitation, its first bishop in 
America and the official founder of its first American settlement. 

6. Emigrants from Moravia figured so conspicuously among the first missionaries and first 
colonists of the Church in America that immediately the name Moravian was applied by 
English-speaking people to the entire body of the Brethren. 

While therefore this name as now generally applied to the Renewed Church of the 
Brethren is held to be preferable in English, the various designations will be used ad libitum 
in these pages as convenience or suitableness may require. 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- 9 

One bore the names Calixtines, from their emblem the communion 
chaHce, and Utraquists from the phrase sub utraque forma, i. e. the 
communion in both kinds. The other was known as the Taborites 
from the name of their chief stronghold in the Hussite wars. They 
were the most uncompromising radicals, politically and ecclesiasti- 
cally. The Utraquists, more disposed to negotiate with the Papacy 
and to accommodate discipline to circumstances, embodied the uni- 
versity party and most of the titled classes. They became the domin- 
ant body, strong enough at the Council of Basle (1433) to gain 
temporary concessions from the diplomats of Rome in what are 
known as the Compactata of Basle, and in sanctioning the ordina- 
tion, for the Waldenses, of two new priests, Frederick and John, sur- 
named Nemez and Wlach — German and Walloon — and their con- 
secration as bishops in 1434, as a stroke of pohcy to enlist the 
Utraquists and their proteges against the Taborites and for other 
interests then deemed more important. The Taborites rejected the 
Compactata, again resorted to arms, with now the Utraquists also 
against them, and met with an overwhelming defeat (1434) which 
led to their disintegration and put the Utraquists in control to de- 
velop a national church. 

Besides the Orphans, the most extreme faction of the Taborite 
party, and numerous smaller sects, there existed certain circles of 
quiet, godly men within the Utraquist and Taborite parties who 
held aloof from issues between the two, decHned to engage in war- 
fare and fostered Apostolic teaching, discipline and fellowship. 
These constituted the most genuine followers of Hus and furnished 
the seed of the Brethren's Church. From their central nucleus in 
Prague a colony under the leadership of Gregory, a nephew of Roky- 
cana, Utraquist Archbishop elect of Prague, located, early in the year 
1457, near the village of Kunwald on the domain of Lititz in the 
north-eastern part of Bohemia, the property of George Podiebrad 
who the next year became King of Bohemia and who, like Rokycana, 
was at that time in sympathy with them. There they formed an 
association — tradition says on March i — based upon the Scriptures 
and the Articles of Prague and directed by twenty-eight Elders, three 
of them priests and the rest laymen of various stations — schoolmen, 
artisans, noblemen and peasants. For a while they seem to have 
spoken of themselves as "Brethren of the Law of Christ;" adverting 
to an utterance of John Hus, to signify their scriptural foundation 
and the nature of their union. Otherwise their name during the 



lO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

first years was simply "the Brethren." They did not propose to 
found an independent church, but merely to foster Apostolic teaching 
and fellowship as a society within the National Church, doing what 
good they might to their surroundings, receiving the sacrament from 
reputable priests of the neighborhood, and pastoral care from those 
who had joined them, notably Michael of Bradac, called Bradacius, 
an aged priest of Senftenberg, their first minister. 

Their increase was rapid. Four years later they had several 
thousand members and affiliated groups began to form at other points 
both in Bohemia and Moravia. The infectious influence of various 
erratic sects upon this mixed multitude soon made it necessary to 
define some principles more clearly and to adopt further regulations. 
The determination to search the Scriptures for authority in all 
things, to obey the law of Christ in life and fellowship and to avoid 
political entanglements was reaffirmed. Controversies on the Eu- 
charist having invaded the Society, the position was taken that the 
sacrament should be received in faith, accepting the words of Christ 
without formulated definition, rejecting only the doctrine of trans- 
substantiation. This principle laid down in 1459 was maintained 
permanently and is the position of the Church now. Watchful 
enemies aided by renegades soon found occasion in these things to 
accuse thern before the authorities. The King and Rokycana, both 
fearing the growing numbers of the Brethren and desiring to keep 
peace with Rome in the pursuit of their own ambitions, were readily 
influenced against them. Persecution ensued and the main body of 
them retired into the mountains of Reichenau where they worshiped 
and held synods in the open air. In 1464 they took further steps in 
the hour of trial to strengthen their bond. They adopted a more 
elaborate code of statutes remarkable for their enlightened evan- 
gelical character in such times as those, for their calm, heroic tone 
and for their exalted charity. They constitute the earliest formal 
declaration of the Brethren preserved to posterity and yet extant in 
translations. 

In 1467 they took the next step to which the logic of events directed 
them as indispensable to maintain their organization and pursue its 
high aims. This was the establishment of their own ministry through 
the good offices of the Waldenses with whom they had opened com- 
munication on the subject. After weighing the matter well in all 
its bearings and with much prayer, they submitted the main question 
to the drawing of a lot in which they believed, like t!ie Apostles, 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1 735. II 

that Divine guidance would be given, and the result was affirmative. 
Nine worthy candidates were elected. Then they again resorted to 
the lot and three of these were drawn. First the priests who were 
present, Michael Bradacius and the rest — an aged Waldensian taking 
the lead — set them apart by the laying on of hands after the entire 
synod of about sixty men had pledged them cordial recognition. 
Then Michael with the Waldensian priest and another who had re- 
nounced allegiance to Rome and joined them, were sent to Stephen, 
an aged bishop of the Waldenses of Moravia, who with another of 
their bishops 3'et living claimed a genuine episcopate in their own 
ancient line which, however, Utraquist documents refer to as derived 
through the procedure at Basle in 1434. Stephen was asked to confer 
the episcopate upon them that they might have a ministry which 
would be recognized as valid amid all the circumstances that might 
arise in time to come. He complied by consecrating Michael who 
was a regular priest of Roman ordination and had been identified 
with the Brethren from the beginning. Michael, upon his return, 
ordained the three chosen men to the ministry. They were Matthias 
of Kunwald, Thomas of Prelouc and Elias of Chrenovic. Then he 
consecrated Matthias the first bishop, the others being subsequently 
also consecrated.- An Executive Council of twelve men, presbyters 



' For the information of those readers who are interested in the subject of Moravian 
Orders it may be stated that this brief sketch rests on the most reliable sources now extant. 
The episcopate of the Unitas Fratrum and back of it that of the Waldenses have been made 
to appear doubtful by the reproduction of Romanist and Utraquist documents tending to 
belittle the origin and discredit the statements of the Brethren. It is characteristic of the 
kind of ecclesiastics who permitted the propagation of the Waldensian episcopate as a con- 
cession to the Nationalist parties (1433-34) that they should suppress recorded reference to 
the fact and file documents misrepresenting or distorting it — as characteristic as was the 
burning of the Waldensian Bishop Stephen at the stake in 1469 for having transferred the 
episcopate to the Brethren that they might become a distinct Church. That Utraquist 
sources are not trustworthy in this matter follows logically from their attitude and measures 
over against the Brethren during that and the following decade. That the Utraquist prelate, 
Rokycana, allied himself with the Papal party in opening a fierce persecution of the 
Brethren and the Waldenses, when the transactions of 1467 became known, indicates that 
he and the representatives of Rome took the episcopate involved and the act of transfer at 
their full value. 

When hypercritical and captious inquiries, unfairly pressed, call for an amount of docu- 
mentary evidence which is not to be expected, the vicissitudes through which the historical 
sources of the Church have passed must be remembered. During the earliest period the 
Brethren recorded and published little about their doings for obvious reasons. Subsequently 
documents in abundance were collected but they, like the Church itself, were pursued relent- 



12 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and laymen, was associated with Matthias as President, and thus 
the Jcdnota Bratrska or Unitas Fratrum assumed the position of 
a distinct Church to which both NationaHsts and Papists drove it 
by the measures adopted to terrify and scatter its members. 

In the system which grew out of these beginnings, and was well 
established before the year 1500, the native genius of the Church 
asserted itself, free from the clogs which would have attended a 
move to reconstruct an existing national establishment, or a process 
organically connected with the Papal system. It had much of the 
character of an original institution developing from the germ and 
directed according to primitive Christian models. First was the 
Congregation as the unit — a voluntary association of like-minded be- 
lievers bound by a brotherly agreement and governed by an elected 
eldership. Then, with increase of such groups, arose the Synod as 
the unit of power, legislating by delegated authority. This was not 
altered by the introduction of the episcopate. The Synod com- 
mitted executive authority and administration to the Council, which 
again was elective and representative ; for while the episcopacy was 
placed at the head of it — first one bishop alone, later several — the 
presbytery and the laiety had a voice in it, with the central principle 
of conferential government and collegiate administration established. 

lessly by the spirit of destruction. The first archives at Senftenberg were scattered and in 
part destroyed before 1500. Those then collected at Leitomischl were consumed by fire in 
1546. When the Counter-Reformation opened in 1621 special attention was devoted to the 
destruction of the remaining and added literature of the Brethren, the valuable library of 
Comenius, e.g. being burned in the public square. Again at the fall of Lissa in 1656 his 
second library and the documents of the Unitas Fratrum, once more gathered with much 
effort, suffered another ordeal of fire and pillage. Those rescued were conveyed from place 
to place, scattered and to a great extent eventually lost. Those embraced in thirteen 
volumes of the so-called Lissa Folios — now the most valuable collection known — did not 
come back into possession of the Church until 1838, when an examination of them served 
to correct current inaccuracies and furnish anew much forgotten information. No one, unless 
predisposed to make out a case against the validity of the episcopate of the Unitas Fratrum, 
will seriously base conclusions on detracting extraneous sources as more credible than the few 
ancient records of the Brethren which have survived the pitiless devastations of the centu- 
ries. The most that can be made of adverse sources by a historian worthy of attention is 
presenled by Dr. Jaroslav GoU in his Quelkn iind UnUrstuhungcn ztir Geschichte Jer 
Boehmischen Brueder, Prague, 1878, and even he, although a Romanist, does not assume to 
have finally disposed of the matter. Extensive treatment of the subject, with cit.ation and dis- 
cussion of sources, may be found in the History of the Unitas Frntruiii, by Bishop Edmund 
de Schweinitz, S.T.D., Bethlehem, 1S78. See also the Moravian Manual, Bethlehem, 1901, 
for a succinct narrative and a complete list of bishops from Matthias in I467 to the last 
consecrated in 1901. 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- I3 

This principle, with the authority of the Synod supreme, served 
as a standing check on what seemed undue power committed to 
the bishop who was President. Later the lay element and eventually 
also the presbytery disappeared from the Council and it became en- 
tirely episcopal. This was not due however to a deliberate change 
of principle but resulted from the stress of perilous times when con- 
centration of authority was desirable ; when masterful personal lead- 
ership was of more value than any kind of governmental machinery; 
when born leaders naturally found their way into the episcopacy. 

Elementary conceptions entered into the system from first to last, 
which gave it affinity to widely divergent Protestant types of the 
sixteenth century. It anticipated Luther in emphasizing the priest- 
hood of individual believers, Zwingli in maintaining the rights of 
the congregation over against hierarchy, and Calvin in restoring eld- 
ership in church government, while, like the Church of England, it 
did not, in -repudiating the Papacy, discard the historic episcopate 
and adopt parity of the clergy. These relationships appeared later 
in the intercourse of the Brethren with the leaders of the Reformation 
and, together with their doctrinal position, made possible their 
alliance with Lutheran and Calvinistic Protestants in the Consensus 
of Sendomir in 1570 and the joint Bohemian Confession of 1575, 
while prior to that, in 1548, when because of the alleged connection 
of some of their nobles with the Smalcald League a general perse- 
cution came upon them which led to the founding of the Polish branch 
of the Church, their position secured for those of them who fled to 
England a cordial reception as a distinct party among the "foreign 
Protestants" cared for in London by command of the young King 
Edward VL 

The complete constitution of the Church in its maturity, as last 
revised and adopted in 1616, shortly before its most disastrous crisis, 
was first published in print in 1632-33 in Bohemian, German and 
Latin ; its title, best known in Latin, being Ratio Disciplinae Ordin- 
isque ecclesiastici in Unitate Fratrum Bohemorum. There will be oc- 
casion to refer to it again. 

It would exceed the purpose and limit of this sketch to trace events 
in chronological order, even very briefly, from the important year 
1467 to the disruption of the Church which terminated the ancient 
period of its organized existence soon after the opening of the Thirty- 
vears' War. 



14 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

Its history during tliat century and a half is most conspicuously 
one of persecution renewed again and again with a relentless deter- 
mination that has few parallels in the records of religious intoler- 
ance and political tyranny. The Brethren, more than any other 
people of the realm, were hated and dreaded by those who ruled by 
these means, because they fearlessly advocated truth and right, 
spread the teachings of the gospel, educated the masses to think 
for themselves, which was dangerous to corrupt domination in church 
and state; because they were more firmly and intelligently united 
than any other party, standing upon their own distinct basis and 
wielding an influence among titled families, scholars, burghers and 
peasants which neither Utraquists nor Papists could enlist for any 
joint or rival purpose. Therefore they were the perpetual object 
of jealous antipathy from both sides, and usually each could count 
upon the other to support, or at least to not obstruct the edicts 
which again and again were promulgated against them. When these 
measures were designed to not merely harass the Brethren, but even 
to open a general campaign of complete suppression, as was the 
case with the famous Edict of St. James in 1508 and its renewal in 
1547, all the barbarities so common in that rude age, where tyranny 
and fanaticism resorted to force, were inflicted upon them. Languish- 
ing in loathsome dungeons, freezing and starving in the forests 
and mountain fastnesses, enduring every species of torture which 
refined cruelt)^ could invent, undaunted by the executioner's torch or 
steel ; or leaving possessions and comforts behind to go penniless by 
multitudes into dreary exile, their heroic witnesses added a long 
array to "the noble army of martyrs" who "obtained a good report 
through faith." There were of course those who in such extremities 
faltered and renounced that for which others laid down their lives, 
but, in general, the steadfast loyalty of the Brethren to their Church 
was as impressive as their resolute adherence to the Scriptures as 
their standard. Its origin, system, methods, worship and attitude 
towards all issues of the time embodied the best ideals of the nation 
and made it in a peculiar sense the people's church, to which they 
clung with the characteristic tenacity of their race. In the baronial 
castle and in the peasant's cottage the true heart of the people 
spoke in its confessions and its hymns. Its power of endurance 
carried it safely through one after another internal crisis also, in 
ridding itself of eccentric factions which threatened to pervert its 
course, extricating itself from narrow trammels when it outgrew 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- 15 

them and gradually casting off old errors as it advanced in scriptural 
knowledge. Its speedy recuperation after periods of persecution and 
its rapid growth during the intervals of peace were phenomenal. 
When the German Reformation began in 1517 the Unitas Fratrum 
had nearly two hundred thousand members and about four hundred 
places of worship. Its parish schools were educating its peasantry 
to a standard far above that of their surroundings and its seats of 
higher learning were sought out by many nobles outside of its pale. 
It had two Theological Seminaries in Moravia and one in Bohemia 
in the sixteenth century and one was founded later in Poland. The 
Brethren led the literary activity of the realm, owning and operating 
three of the five printing-presses in Bohemia prior to 1520, and 
during the first decade of that century issuing vastly more printed 
matter than appeared from all other sources in that country. The 
fondness of the people for music was gratified and utilized from 
the beginning by the cultivation of congregational singing. The first 
collection of hymns was printed by the Unitas Fratrum in 1501, as 
the latest investigations have proved by the discovery of a copy 
yet in existence. Successive revisions and improvements were made, 
and soon after the middle of the century there were complete 
hymnals in Bohemian, German and Polish, mature in plan and rich 
in matter; the principal editions having the notes of the tunes printed 
with the hymns. The greatest literary production of the Church 
was its Bohemian version of the Bible, the task of eight of its learned 
men laboring fifteen years. The translation was, like that of the 
New Testament alone in 1564, made from the Hebrew and Greek 
text instead of the Latin vulgate as in the case of other Bohemian 
versions, and it was published complete at Kralic in Moravia in 
1593. Both in its value as the Holy Word given the people in their 
own tongue and as a noble classic of the national language it was 
for Bohemia and Moravia what Luther's Bible was for Germany. 

The importance to which the Unitas Fratrum had risen in the 
sixteenth century is not generally recognized. It is overshadowed 
in the retrospect by the magnitude of the movements in Germany in 
that century. Besides this, the people and language of the land 
of Hus could not participate in the modern Protestant developments 
after the issues of the Thirty-years' War were settled, because at 
the beginning of it the country was ruined by the Romish reactionary 
crusade which there did its worst, and the Church which most truly 
embodied the native evangelical spirit was crushed. German Pro- 



l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

testant writers of church history have usually drawn rather too sharp 
a dividing line between the old darkness and the new light for all 
Western Europe at the beginning of the German Reformation, while 
the leading modern Bohemian historians who patriotically bring out 
the grand things of their country which were buried under the 
cataclysm of the seventeenth century and, with a fair degree of 
appreciation, give the Church of the Brethren the prominence it 
deserves as the embodiment of noble ideals heroically pursued, do 
not usually write from the standpoint of Protestants and therefore 
do not take pains to point out particularly those things in its teach- 
ing and activity in which the standards of Protestantism were antici- 
pated by "Reformers before the Reformation." 

With all they had attained through their diligent study of the 
Scriptures, they were willing, like all honest searchers for the truth, 
to learn from any who had a clearer insight into Apostolic teaching 
in any point. The influence of Luther, with whom they first en- 
tered into communication in 1522, is evident in their progress in 
formulating evangelical doctrines after that time. They acknow- 
ledged his eminence as a restorer of sound theology, while he 
praised their superiority in maintaining scriptural discipline and fos- 
tering vital godliness. He wrote a preface to one of their con- 
fessions and published it at Wittenberg in 1533, as an evidence of 
what remained in Bohemia and Moravia from the holy seed sown 
by Hus more than a century before. Some of their numerous 
declarations, apologies and confessions were called forth by the 
frequent necessity of giving an account of themselves to friend or 
foe ; others were intended to supersede previous ones as the fruit 
of deeper study in Divine things. Their last comprehensive con- 
fession, presenting their system of doctrine in its final maturity, ap- 
peared in 1573, two years before the joint confession of the three 
evangelical parties of Bohemia already referred to. The latest edition 
of it was published in 1612 when the Church was at last enjoying 
triumphant liberty, but at the same time was approaching its great 
catastrophe. 

In 1609 the persistent efforts of the Evangelical parties in Bohemia 
and Moravia finally secured an imperial charter of religious liberty, 
and the Brethren's Church reached the summit of outward as- 
cendency. Although the influential nobles in its connection, with the 
adherents of the other Protestant confessions, used the advantage 
thus gained to strengthen their position in the state and make the 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1/35. 1/ 

victory permanent if possible, subtile forces were at work to produce 
an irresistible reaction and the Romish Counter-Reformation was 
taking shape right in the years of exultant triumph. The song of 
the people entered the ear of a cruel fanatic in whose hand the coun- 
try's future lay, the Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, who had promised 
his Jesuit preceptor to make the complete re-establishment of Papal 
dominion in Bohemia and Moravia his great work. The political 
conditions which were leading the states of Western Europe into 
three decades of conflict and chaos soon gave him his opportunity. 
In 1617 he became King of Bohemia. Futile efforts of the evan- 
gelical parties to avert the doom which this foretokened, strengthened 
his purpose. 

Two years later this sworn enemy of all liberty ascended the throne 
of the empire as Ferdinand the Second, and it soon appeared how 
ruthlessly he proposed to execute his plans. In the battle of the 
White Mountain, November 8, 1620, the Protestant forces were 
utterly routed and then he commenced his work of desolation. The 
bishops and ministers of the Unitas Fratrum were put under an edict 
of banishment, its churches and schools were forcibly closed and all 
its property was confiscated. The Calvinistic ministers were similarly 
dealt with and ere long those of the Lutheran confession also. A 
year later torture and cruel death began to be inflicted upon those 
who dared to remain, and many of their people shared their fate. 
June 21, 1 62 1, twenty-seven Bohemian patriots, most of them dis- 
tinguished noblemen and many of them members of the Unitas, were 
beheaded in Prague. That day is known in Bohemian history as 
"the day of blood." During the years 1624 to 1626 special emissaries 
traversed the land proclaiming the ultimatum, exile or death for all 
who would not renounce evangelical faith and church connection. 
Thousands left their homes and fled to Protestant countries. Mean- 
while other agents were engaged in the systematic destruction of 
evangelical literature, that of the Brethren being particularly sought 
for. One person is said to have boasted that he had burned over 
sixty thousand volumes. To all of these measures were added cun- 
ningly devised schemes to impoverish the country, bankrupting the 
rich and starving the poor in order to reduce the people to sub- 
mission. Finally in 1627 the charter of 1609 was formally revoked 
and imperial edicts were issued which made every non-Romanist 
practically an outlaw. This was followed in 1628 by a general exodus 
of the best people in the country. Some villages were almost de- 
3 



10 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

populated. More than thirty-six thousand families went into exile. 
The success of this insane and barbarous crusade smothered, even 
if it could not extinguish, evangelical religion in Bohemia and 
Moravia. The organized existence of the Brethren's Church in those 
countries was at an end and the Anti-Reformer was satisfied. Other 
evangelical parties had their strongholds in other lands. Viewed as 
organizations, they were merely driven out of the country and back 
home. The Brethren's Church was crushed in its own home where 
it originated and developed as an element of the nationality. It 
was an exile and a stranger in other countries and had no home 
in the day of afHiction. This difference explains the cruel ignoring 
of the Brethren by other evangelical parties in the terms they made 
in the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty-years' War in 
1648. Their Church was looked upon as a practically extinct Church 
which the Protestant powers did not feel moved to consider in the 
hour of triumph. No princes represented it, and considerations of 
state policy weighed more than the law of Christ. 

Disruption and dispersion did not, however, mean extinction. 
Large numbers who remained in the home lands of the Church con- 
tinued to cherish its faith and traditions and to meet in secret, par- 
ticularly in Moravia, where there seemed to be more opportunity to 
•do so, and these came to be called "the hidden seed" of the Church. 
Those who went into exile found their way in part to the Polish 
congregations of the Church. Others rallied and held together so far 
as possible in other regions. The chief center of the Brethren was 
now Lissa in Poland. This place was sacked and burned in 1656. 
Then many who had gathered there joined the smaller groups dis- 
persed in other parts of Poland, or in Silesia and Hungary, while 
numbers of them followed former refugees to Holland and England. 
The bishops continued to exercise oversight and provide pastoral 
care as far as possible, through visits and correspondence, and to 
secure material help for their destitute people from sympathizing 
friends; synods and conferences were held from time to time, adopt- 
ing such measures as the circumstances permitted to strengthen the 
things that remained; the constitution and order of the Church em- 
bodied in the Ratio DiscipUnae and printed in 1633, as already stated, 
were treasured in the hope of restoration ; the episcopal succession 
was carefully preserved to be a living link across the period of dis- 
ruption representing the historic identity of the Church. Several 
centers of administration were temporarily established at points 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- I9 

where the Brethren were permitted to congregate as a distinct body, 
and even Lissa once more became such a seat for a while; but the 
prevailing conditions during the last three decades of the century ren- 
dered irresistible the gradual absorption of the scattered remnants 
by other bodies, mainly the Reformed Church of the realm, of which 
ultimately even the men in whose persons the episcopate of the 
Unitas Fratrum was perpetuated were legally recognized ministers. 
The native language of the exiles was maintained in public services 
at some places until 1700, when it was entirely displaced by German. 
Up to 171 5 about fifteen parishes seem to have remained and when 
the actual resuscitation of the Church took place in the following 
decade in Saxony, these did not enter into organic connection with it. 
What survives to recall their existence is to be found in a group of 
so-called Unitdtsgemeinden in the Province of Posen, whose episco- 
pate, preserved unbroken until 1841, was in 1844 and again in 1858 
and 1883 restored by bishops of the Moravian Church. 

During the period from the end of the Thirty-years' War until well 
into the second decade of the eighteenth century the representatives 
of the suppressed Church maintained frequent and cordial com- 
munication with the Church of England and particularly with the 
University authorities at Oxford where considerable sums of money 
were raised for the impoverished Brethren, scholarships were founded 
for their students, degrees were conferred upon certain of their 
bishops, plans of ecclesiastical union were discussed, and arrange- 
ments existed for the pastoral care of Bohemian and Moravian 
families who had fled to that country. 

During the period from the beginning of the Counter-Reformation 
until far beyond the middle of the seventeenth century, one dis- 
tinguished man stands pre-eminently associated with the hard for- 
tunes of the Brethren and with the effort to prevent the extinction 
of their Church. This man was John Amos Comenius, the last of 
the old Bohemian-Moravian line of its bishops, consecrated to the 
episcopacy as an exile, but when the hope of a speedy restoration of 
the Church in its native land was yet cherished. Ever mourning for 
the prostrate palaces of Zion and for his bleeding country, he has 
been called "the Jeremiah of the Brethren's Church." He is far 
better known to the world in other spheres in which he is given rank 
as one of the greatest men of his age. In Sweden, Holland and 
England his fame as a philosopher, and particularly as a reformer of 
educational principles and methods, was spread abroad and his 



20 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

presence was coveted in all of these countries. Even from across the 
ocean he received an invitation to come to America and assume the 
presidency of Harvard College, and the learned Cotton Mather refers 
regretfully to the fact that the attempt failed and "that incomparable 
Moravian became not an American." When in 1892 the three 
hundredth anniversary of his birth was celebrated by so many educa- 
tional institutions and learned societies in Europe and America, and 
the great service he rendered the world as a pioneer of modern 
pedagogic science was extolled, few gave a thought to what he did 
as a Moravian Bishop to preserve the Church of his fathers from 
oblivion. In Holland, where he ended his days, and in England, in 
the midst of ceaseless literary toil, harassed in mind and heart by the 
bewildering unrest and buffeting tumults of the times, his tongue and 
pen were ever pleading the interests of his exiled brethren and of 
other fugitives in distress, such as the Waldenses, so often confused 
in history with the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. The Amer- 
ican colonies were inviting people like these, and especially was the 
Dutch West India Company, of which a wealthy literary patron of 
Comenius at Amsterdam seems to have been a member, offering 
them inducements. Reference in old documents of this corporation 
to the desirability of having Bohemian exiles and Waldenses as 
settlers on the Delaware River suggests association with the plans 
of Comenius to find places of refuge for his homeless countrymen. 
Some such did come to the Dutch settlements on the Delaware in 
that "pre-pennian" period, but whether any of them belonged to the 
"hidden seed" or the migrating membership of the Brethren's 
Church has not been ascertained. There is strong reason also to 
believe that Comenius met the first Quakers who appeared in Holland 
and who there instituted those connections with the oppressed and 
unsettled masses which later led to further extensive emigrations to 
the new world. More than half a century, however, elapsed after 
his death in Holland in 1671, before the first men who represented 
not only his national, but also his ecclesiastical connections, are 
positively known to have come to Pennsylvania ; and they did not 
come as straggling fugitives, but as messengers sent from a new 
church home to seek, not a refuge from bloody persecution, but a 
field of Christian activity. 

Fifty years after the death of the aged Bishop his hope was 
fufilled in events as insignificant in appearance, as were those original 
movements of the Brethren at Kunwald in 1457. Not from Poland, 




NICHOLAS LOUIS, COUNT OF ZINZENDORF 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- 21 

where the Church had longest maintained some visible cohesion and 
organization, and not through efforts instituted by its two bishops yet 
living, but from the posterity of that "hidden seed" of Moravia, where 
the smouldering embers of evangelical faith were here and there 
being quickened into flame and the old recollections and hopes were 
being revived, the movement proceeded which resulted in the re- 
newal of the Brethren's Church in another country, modified and 
adapted to other conditions. 

Christian David, a Moravian carpenter, converted from Romanism 
and evangelizing among his countrymen, became the conspicuous 
agent in this movement. Seeking a refuge for some spiritually 
awakened families who wished to emigrate to a Protestant country, 
as so many others had done at intervals, he came into contact, 
early in 1722, with a young Saxon nobleman, Nicholas Lewis, Count 
of Zinzendorf, who was attracting much attention by his singular 
devotion to religious work. Moved by the account given him of 
these people, he promised to help them find a location, little antici- 
pating the far-reaching result. 

Near the home of his childhood. Gross Hennersdorf, in Upper 
Lusatia, Saxony, he had acquired an estate called Berthelsdorf, on 
which he was preparing to take up his residence and establish one of 
several centres of Christian activity, which he had been planning in 
conjunction with a few friends of his youth and godly associates, 
somewhat after the manner of the old Pietistic societies, and of the 
institutions of Halle. There had been no thought of including the 
care of Moravian refugees in these plans, and co-operation in recon- 
structing the ancient evangelical Church of that country did not 
enter his mind. Nevertheless the Divine purpose yet hidden from 
him brought him by means of this interview with the carpenter of 
Moravia into contact with what he was ultimately compelled to recog- 
nize as his pre-eminent lifework — "eine mir von Ewigkeit bestimmte 
Parochie," he subsequently called it. That he was himself a descend- 
ant of one who for the sake of evangelical liberty had, like so many 
Bohemian and Moravian nobles, abandoned his ancestral seat south 
of Moravia, where the same ecclesiastical oppression reigned ; and 
that his bride, the Countess Erdmuth Dorothea of Reuss, whom he 
wedded some months after this interview and who entered devotedly 
into his work, traced lineage back to the family of Podiebrad, King 
of Bohemia, the first lordly patron of the Brethren more than two 
and a half centuries before, are incidental facts — he alluded to them 



22 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

years afterwards — which add even a romantic aspect to the destiny 
that linked their fortunes to those of the Moravian Church. 

Some weeks after Zinzendorf made this promise two brothers, 
Augustine and Jacob Neisser, of Sehlen, Moravia, with their house- 
holds, ten persons in all, who had quietly left their homes at night, 
suddenly arrived in Upper Lusatia under Christian David's leadership 
and after securing reluctant permission to locate — -Zinzendorf being 
in Dresden at the time — they commenced, on June 17, 1722, to fell 
timber for a house at a site selected by the Count's steward on the 
Berthelsdorf manor. Out of this beginning arose the village of 
Herrnhut, so intimately associated with the history of the Church. 
Many followed them from Moravia in the course of the next few 
years, some of them men of position and substance who sacrificed 
property and comfort for religion's sake. Others came from Bohemia 
and finally unsettled and seeking souls from various German neigh- 
borhoods began to join the colony, so that representatives of the sev- 
eral Protestant confessions, individuals who had forsaken Romish 
connection, enthusiasts and separatists with various special tenets en- 
tered into the population and took advantage of the generous indul- 
gence and the comprehensive but as yet immature plans of the young 
lord of the manor, to assert themselves rather aggressively. When 
the corner-stone of the building in which the first of the proposed 
establishments in pursuance of the Count's projects was to be opened, 
and which became the first place of worship, was laid on May 12, 
1724, five Moravians who more distinctly represented traditions and 
family associations of the Brethren's Church and had a more definite 
purpose in view in connection with the thought of its possible reor- 
ganization than previous refugees, arrived at Herrnhut. Zinzendorf 
later called them by way of pre-eminence "the five Moravian Church- 
men." Three of them bore the name David Nitschmann. The other 
two were John Toeltschig and Melchior Zeisberger. 

It was after his interview with these men that Zinzendorf began to 
recognize a problem in the desire of the Moravians. Grave questions 
were involved in the further reception of refugees from those neigh- 
borhoods, for drastic measures in the spirit of the old persecution were 
being adopted to check the movement, but were rather increasing it. 
To permit them to organize on the basis of church principles and 
regulations which were associated with another nationality ; which 
no longer had official recognition anywhere beyond the fact that they 
were personally represented by two ecclesiastics who were perpetuat- 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO I735. 23 

ing the episcopate of the old Church while laboring under the author- 
ity of the Reformed Church of Prussia and Poland; which further- 
more were historically quite distinct from those of the established 
Church of Saxony, which was Lutheran, would produce very serious 
complications. Personally Zinzendorf was a Lutheran, not only nom- 
inally but by decided preference, while those of the Moravians whose 
theological conceptions — somewhat undefined at the time — revealed 
any bias on the points of difference, seemed to lean rather towards 
the Reformed standards. Others who found their way to Herrnhut 
disclaimed adhesion to either of the leading confessions, and con- 
fused the situation the more by obtruding sectarian or separatistic 
specialties. In the consideration of this problem, with his disposition 
to combine rather than differentiate divergent elements, to seek a 
principle and method of holding different persuasions to the central 
points of agreement, with a safe measure of liberty in points of 
divergence so long as nothing essential was compromised, the rudi- 
ments of a scheme began to take form in his mind which in subse- 
quent years he sought to develop systematically; viz., that of accom- 
modating the several confessional affiliations and church cults under 
a plan which would admit of their being conserved and allowed to 
predominate in certain main elements according to the traditions 
of different localities or bodies of people brought into the general 
connection, while all constituted one household of brethren bound 
by those articles of doctrine, constitution, discipline and ritual which 
were central and accepted by all. This scheme eventually found 
shape in what he called Tropi Paedias, resting on conceptions which 
the prevailing spirit of his age could not appreciate or sympathize 
with, but which would command more intelligent respect at the 
present time. These conceptions entered into his plans and methods 
to such an extent that herein the key must be sought to interpret 
much that has been misapprehended as confused and inconsistent 
in his efforts among rigid confessionists of different schools and 
among all manner of sectarians. They must be kept in mind in order 
to intelligently follow his course among the variety of religionists in 
Pennsylvania some years later. They even account for some char- 
acteristics of the modern Moravian Church in its doctrinal position, 
its polity, discipline and ritual, and its attitude towards other religious 
bodies ; for rudiments in all of these particulars lay in this scheme 
as well as in the ancient system of the Church, while others are to 
be found in the process of adaptation to its peculiar situation within 



24 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA 

the pale of a state church with a doctrinal confession and other 
requirements established by law. 

Various considerations directed Zinzendorf's efiforts to regulate 
the crude situation at Herrnhut. Paramount was the spiritual good 
of the individuals and essential to this was agreement to simple 
evangelical fundamentals in theory and practice to overcome both 
sectarian vagaries and confessional disputations. Then also the civil 
and ecclesiastical limitations had to be regarded in the work of foun- 
dation-laying, and a proper understanding of their relations to him as 
lord of the manor and to his parish minister at Berthelsdorf had to 
be established among the people, while dissension and dissatisfaction 
threatened the dissolution of the colony. 

The occurrences of the year 1727 constituted an epoch. After 
much earnest, personal work, in which he was aided by a few of the 
most steadfast and godly men, the Count succeeded in bringing about 
harmony of spirit and agreement to principles in so far that on May 
12 of that year unanimous written assent was given to a body of 
articles called "Statuta Fraterna, or Brotherly Agreement of the 
Brethren from Bohemia and Moravia and sundry other Brethren at 
Herrnhut to walk according to Apostolic Rule." 

Twelve elders were chosen to have spiritual oversight and four of 
these were selected by lot as chief elders. A variety of other oflfices 
completed this first organization which in the main was notably simi- 
lar to that originally formed in 1457. A season of deep spiritual 
experience and fervent concord ensued, and at the first celebration 
of the Holy Communion after all this, in the parish church of Ber- 
thelsdorf on August 13 of that year, such an overpowering sense of 
the Divine presence sealed the whole that the day came to be spoken 
of as "the spiritual birthday of the Renewed Church." A strong 
impulse to evangelistic activity was awakened, the influence of which 
soon began to be felt in many neighborhoods. The itinerants were 
warmly encouraged by many pastors of the State Church, some the- 
ological professors and some pious noblemen, while nearly every- 
where the common people heard them gladly. 

But strong currents set in against Herrnhut from various quarters. 
The visits of the zealous Moravians to their native villages and other 
places where like conditions prevailed provoked more violent 
measures to suppress their activity. In 1729 two of the Nitschmanns 
— one of those "five churchmen" and one of the Herrnhut elders — 
who were on such a tour, died in prison. In Germany certain of the 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1 73 5. 25 

unfriendly class among the Protestant clergy who long before Herrn- 
hut was founded had been making Zinzendorf a target for censorious 
flings and were predisposed to find fault on general principles with 
anything he might say or do, opened a campaign of detraction from 
the pulpit, from the catliedra and through the press, which met the 
approval of some officials at the court of Dresden, and notwith- 
standing the failure of a royal commission in 1732 to find anything 
amiss in the new settlement, secured the banishment of the Count 
from Saxony four years later. Unfortunate tendencies which de- 
veloped at a subsequent period of the Church and gave some real 
occasion for censure will be referred to in another chapter. 

The beginning of these hostile agitations made the question how 
to dispose of the wishes of the Moravians quite perplexing. Their 
zeal and fearlessness as evangelists increased Zinzendorf's regard 
for them and his desire to utilize their services in pursuing his ever 
broadening plans of activity. Already in 1727 while pondering the 
thought of undertaking missionary work among the heathen which 
had been in his mind from his boyhood, the idea was broached of 
founding a settlement in Pennsylvania to which the Moravians might 
emigrate if not permitted to remain in Saxony, and from which they 
might go out into the wilderness and preach the gospel to the 
Indians. 

In the Summer of that same memorable year, 1727, a book n^ver 
yet examined by the Count came into his hands which moved him 
profoundly and had a distinct influence on his plans in reference to 
these people. It was the old Ratio Disciplinae of the Brethren re- 
vised and republished by Comenius in 1660, with a succinct history 
of his much-loved Church, then completely overthrown, and dedicated 
in sad and tender language to the Church of England, along with a 
lengthy exhortation to that Church — Paraenesis Ecclesiae Bohemicae 
ad Anglicanani de Bono Unitatis et Ordinis — in which he fondly sets 
forth and commends features which he deems of universal value in 
the ecclesiastical traditions of the Brethren. The impression this 
work made upon Zinzendorf can best be stated in the words of a 
letter which he wrote eleven years later. He says : "I could not long 
read the pitiful lamentation of the aged Comenius, when he thought 
that the Church of the Brethren had come to an end and he was 
locking its door; I could not look the second time at his sorrowful 
prayer, turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned, renew 
our davs as of old, before the resolution was formed — I shall help 



26 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to do this so far as lies in my power, even if my estate, my honor and 
my life are sacrificed, and thus as long as I live, and, so far as I 
can provide for it, after my death, this little congregation of the 
Lord shall be preserved for Him until He comes." 

The following year, 1728, two of those "five Moravian Churchmen," 
the eldest of the three David Nitschmanns, subsequently the Bishop, 
and JohnToeltschig, together with another Moravian, Wenzel Neisser, 
were sent to England to give desired information about Herrnhut. 
Their visit opened the way to a series of steps which led to the estab- 
lishment of the Brethren's Church in that country also, and were of 
importance to subsequent undertakings in America. In like manner 
Zinzendorf gradually instituted far-reaching connections with pnnces, 
civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries and faculties of seats of learnmg 
in various other quarters through personal visits and correspondence 
and through such deputations as that to England. Thus a degree 
of attention was attracted to the new enterprise in high circles as well 
as among the masses which would not have been awakened without 
a leader so conspicuous in rank and position, of such versatile genms 
and impressive personality, so ardent and enthusiastic in the pursuit 
of his objects. The leading Moravians and several other men who had 
cast in their lot with them were moreover men of strong character, 
of uncommon natural ability and of dauntless spirit. These quaHties 
on the part of the deputies from Herrnhut, together with the inter- 
esting traditions and aspirations which they represented, also did 
much to bring the place to the notice of men both great and lowly 
to an extent which would not have been the case if its people, with 
all their fervent piety, had been of quiescent and pliable character, 
disposed to simply settle down as an element of the Lutheran parish 
of Berthelsdorf, and nothing more, enjoying the privileges this gave 
them. 

After Zinzendorf's first determination to do what he could to 
further the attainment of their wishes— even interfering in their behalf, 
supported by an encouraging message from one hundred and two 
masters and students at Jena, when, in his absence, a strong effort 
was made to induce them to abandon their purpose and become 
simply a Lutheran congregation— he, himself, counting all the possible 
costs of further steps in the face of the growing opposition, once 
more strongly presented to them the favorable arguments on this 
side, and the hazards to themselves and to the cause of evangelical 
peace which might be incurred in the further pursuit of their purpose. 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- 27 

They remained firm however and declared that if the introduction 
of their ancient system and the establishment of a distinct Church of 
the Brethren was not possible at Herrnhut, they would turn their 
footsteps elsewhere to seek another location. They were willing 
to assent to the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, in which they 
had been instructed by Pastor Rothe of Berthelsdorf, and by the 
Count himself, for they had no reason or desire to be schismatics 
doctrinally, but the church-order of their fathers they insisted on hav- 
ing, so far as this was feasible.^ This point was settled at a general 

3 This position — cardinal in the later structure of the Church and its adjustment to the 
German and English State Churches, and accounting for some features of its early attempts 
in Pennsylvania, much obscured and distorted by writers following misleading sources or 
biased in their own attitude — had been taken already in 1729 in a so-called Notariats 
Instrument, executed with the signatures of eighty-three men of Herrnhut before the proper 
civil officer, as the basis of regulations at that time, and became more articulate after 1 731. 
It was simply conformity in doctrinal statement and singularity in church-order. No attempt 
was ever made to introduce a former doctrinal confession of the Brethren or a new one for 
either effort would have been as futile as undesirable. The dominant Augsburg Confession 
was accepted and acknowledged as setting forth the fundamental doctrines held. In church- 
order a distinct system was built on the old Moravian foundation with the old Moravian 
episcopal ordination inherited. On this ground the Church acquired officially recognized 
and guaranteed standing in Saxony and in Prussian territory in spite of persistent eftbrts in 
hostile quarters to discredit both its confessional avowal and its historic descent. Its ulti- 
mate status was not that of a mere tolerated sect or a mere society within Lutheran lines, 
but that of an adopted and ingrafted distinct Church with its own constituted authorities, 
independent of all other ecclesiastical obligation or supervision, and its formal adhesion to 
that original, common Protestant confession of the realm and compliance with civil require- 
ment, being the on'y condition of its franchises. 

The favorable findings of the Royal Saxon Commission of 1732 and of two others in 1736 
and 1737, notwithstanding the harsh measures of 1736 against Zinzendorf personally, issued 
in an edict August 7, 1737, conceding for the time being the position taken by the Brethren 
"so long as they continued in the doctrine of the unaltered confession of Augsburg." 
Twelve years later, after another commission, their definite recognition as such adherents 
and the conclusive establishment by the State of their position of conformity in doctrinal 
statement and singularity in church-order took place in the publication of a royal mandate of 
September 20, 1749, which decreed that "the Protestant Moravian Brethren, avowing the 
unaltered Augsburg Confession should be received in all Saxony." The original Prussian 
concession on the same basis was dated December 25, 1742. It was confirmed in 1746, 
1763 and 17S9. The validity of these old concessions under greatly changed conditions 
was once more tested and settled on the old basis September 26, 1898, by Supreme 
Court decision in Prussia. 

In England the inadequacy of an act of Parliament of 1747 to protect Moravian 
settlements and missions in English territory, and misrepresentation of the results of the 
Saxon Commission of 1749 led to a request for a similar thorough investigation of the 
Church; the Augustana being again presented as its doctrinal basis and its independent 



28 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

meeting on January 7, 173 1, when, after a full discussion of the ques- 
tion, it was permitted to turn on the drawing of selected texts of 
Scripture, one to be taken favorably, the other adversely. That 
which was to decide for the wishes of the Moravians was drawn : II. 
Thess. 2:15 — "Brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which ye 
have been taught." 

Several months after this decision, which settled the question 
whether those Moravians would cling together with others at Herrn- 
hut under Zinzendorf's leadership and laid the general lines on which 
further ecclesiastical organization and development of activities 
should proceed, the attendance of the Count at the coronation of the 
King of Denmark brought them into initial touch with what was to 
be their pre-eminent sphere of labor and was to bring the first of 
them across the ocean to America — evangelization in foreign parts, 
the propagation of the gospel among the heathen — an undertaking 
which had appealed to the hearts of some in that notable year 1727; 
which had been the dream of Zinzendorf's boyhood; which had en- 
tered into the great philanthropic plans of Comenius in the previous 
century and which Luther, two hundred years before, had intimated 
to the harassed and unsettled Brethren in Bohemia and Moravia they 
might as suitable men take up as their mission. 

In Copenhagen Zinzendorf and one of those "five churchmen" of 
1724 who accompanied him, one of the three David Nitschmanns, 
heard a negro servant from the Island of St. Thomas describe the 
pitiful state of the slaves there. The impression they received from 
this tale of woe was shared by all the people of Herrnhut when the 
negro was later permitted to visit the place and tell his story. Through 
this incident the open door they had been waiting for was set before 
them and on August 21, 1732, Leonhard Dober and this same David 
Nitschmann set out from Herrnhut for St. Thomas to begin the first 
Moravian mission to the heathen. Again by way of Denmark came 
the second opening and January 19, 1733, Matthew Stach, Christian 



church-order on the old Moravian foundation with its old episcopate submitted for exami- 
nation. The result was the act of Parliament, May 12, 1749, which gave it recognition, 
with distinct privileges in all British dominions, as " an ancient Protestant Episcopal 
Church," and declared "their doctrine to differ in no essential article of faith from that of 
the Church of England, as set forth in the Thirty-Nine Articles." This doctrinal position 
does not place the Moravian Church in any kind of organic connection with the Lutheran 
Church. The general statements of that old confession are accepted not because they are 
Lutheran but because they are Scriptural. 



THE MORAVIAN CHURCH TO 1735- 29 

Stach and the veteran evangelist Christian David started for Green- 
land. November 12, 1733, fourteen men and four women sailed from 
Stettin and after a voyage of extraordinary hardship and duration 
reached the Island of St. Croix to found a missionary colony. Feb- 
ruary 24, 1734, Andrew Grassmann, Daniel Schneider and John 
Nitschmann left for Lapland and at the same time Frederick Boeh- 
nisch and John Beck set out for Greenland to reinforce that work. 
November 21, 1734, the first colony destined for missionary work 
among the North American Indians started for Georgia. During 
that year plans were also formed to begin work among the negro 
slaves in the Dutch possessions in South America, and the next year 
George Piesch, George Berwig and Christian von Larisch went to 
Surinam to examine the situation and prospects. 

Now the need of supervision and of ordained men in these fields 
had to be considered. Arrangements which had existed since 1727 
might have sufficed yet longer for the six hundred people of Herrn- 
hut and their itinerant work in Germany and neighboring states, but 
the destiny now opening before the Brethren, with prospective activ- 
ity in many and distant lands, made clear the necessity of the next 
important step in the course of things. Their messengers in this 
wider field must represent, not an incomplete make-shift of organiza- 
tion or a mere society, but the historic Church which was there being 
resuscitated not only in spirit but also in a definite form and in full 
function. They must go forth with the ordination of its bishops, 
representing its rightful place and character as a branch of the 
Church of God, invested with its authority, so that all they do may 
be done decently and in order, and have validity in the eyes of men. 
This further element of legitimacy to constitute the men of Herrnhut 
fully the representatives of the ancient Brethren's Church of Bohemia 
and Moravia — its episcopate, was waiting in the hands of its two 
bishops yet surviving. They were Daniel Ernst Jablonsky, D.D., 
Court Preacher to the King of Prussia, Counselor of the Consistory 
of the realm and President of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Ber- 
lin ; and Christian Sitkovius, Superintendent of the United Churches 
of Poland at Lissa. Dr. Jablonsky, who was a grandson of the illus- 
trious Comenius, had, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
taken a conspicuous part in the evangelical union efforts instituted 
by the King of Prussia, with the Sendomir union of 1570 between 
the Brethren, the Lutherans and the Reformed as a historic prece- 
dent and his own status as a bishop of the Brethren's Church, then 




DAVID NITSCHMANN CEpisc.) 



CHAPTER III. 



From Herrnhut to the Forks of the Delaware, 
1 73 5- 1 740. 

As the hopes of Comenius and his brethren were fulfilled in an 
unexpected manner half a century after his death in the founding of 
Herrnhut, where their Church was revived, so its fifst permanent 
settlement in Pennsylvania came to pass in a manner quite as unex- 
pected almost a century after the Dutch West India Company first 
drew the attention of the exiles in Holland and elsewhere to the 
shores of the Delaware River. 

When in 1727 the people of Herrnhut began to think of sending 
men to America, the land of Penn, with its broad and liberal charter, 
to which so many thousands of Germans had emigrated, was the 
particular region they had in mind. They saw in imagination the 
hordes of savages roaming through its forests and the multitudes of 
home-seekers settling there, for the most part without preacher or 
teacher, and large opportunities for evangelistic activity rose before 
their vision. The uncertainty of their situation in Saxony led them 
also to consider that Protestant intolerance added to Papal intoler- 
ance might compel them to cross the ocean to find liberty and peace, 
and that such a settlement in Pennsylvania might then be not only 
a center of missionary operations but also a refuge for people leav- 
ing Bohemia and Moravia to seek freedom of conscience. 

The attention given to missions in other regions delayed the under- 
taking, and through unforeseen occurrences the founders of the first 
permanent Moravian settlement in North America were led from 
Herrnhut to their final destination by an indirect course, and after 
preliminary efforts elsewhere which had not been contemplated 
originally in the American plans. 

A colony of Schwenkfeldian exiles from Silesia sojourning under 
Count Zinzendorf's protection on the Berthelsdorf manor from 1725 
were required by a royal edict of 1733 to leave Saxony. The first 
company of them came to Pennsylvania a few months later. The 

31 



32 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

second and larger colony left Herrnhut April 26, 1734, with the in- 
tention of locating on a tract of land secured for them by the Count 
in the new Province of Georgia created the previous year. When 
they reached Holland they were persuaded to follow the others to 
Pennsylvania. They had been furnished by Zinzendorf with three 
special conductors : George Boehnisch, one of the Moravian Breth- 
ren; Christopher Baus, a Hungarian of Goerlitz, who had joined the 
Brethren, and Christopher Wiegner, a Silesian co-religionist of the 
exiles who, like several others, had entered into close fellowship with 
the people of Herrnhut. 

They embarked at Rotterdam on the chartered ship St. Andrew, 
Captain John Stedman, and landed at Philadelphia September 22, 
1734. This is therefore the date on which the first Moravian from 
Herrnhut arrived in Pennsylvania. Boehnisch remained until the 
Autumn of 1737, when he returned to Europe. During this sojourn 
of three years, while helping Wiegner to open his farm in the Skip- 
pack woods and to build his house in which later so many Moravians 
found hospitality on their journeys, he did what he could as a lay- 
evangelist among adults and children on the spiritually destitute fron- 
tier, and especially co-operated in bringing to pass the first meetings 
at Wiegner's of a circle of earnest men of various creeds and per- 
suasions to seek mutual edification and to take counsel together for 
the propagation of piety and fellowship regardless of sectarian lines, 
out of which arose the undenominational union known as "The Asso- 
ciated Brethren of Skippack." Henry Antes, one of the most influ- 
ential, respected and godly Germans of Pennsylvania, whose home- 
stead and mill in Frederick Township figured conspicuously in that 
region and who became so prominently identified with Moravian 
work in Pennsylvania, was the leading spirit in this modest Evangeli- 
cal Alliance which resulted from his contact with the first Moravian 
who came to the Province.^ 

I Others besides Christopher Wiegner were Henry Frey, John Kogen, George Merkel, 
Christian Weber, John Bonn, Jacob Wenz, Jost Schmidt, William Bosse, Jost Becker of 
Skippack; William Frey, George Stiefel, Henry Holstein, Andrew Frey of Fredericktown ; 
Matthias Gmelen, Abraham Wagner of Matetsche ; John Barlelot, Francis Ritter, William 
Pott of Oley ; John Bechtel, John Adam Gruber, Blasius Mackinet, George Benzel of Gcr- 
mantown. A central committee consisting of Antes, Bechtel, Stiefel and Wiegner met 
every four weeks for exchange of reports and consultation. They were joined by Spangen- 
berg — of whom more anon — when he came to Pennsylvania. In 1738 they instituted a 
regular Sunday meeting at Wiegner's, where for a while his family, Boehnisch, Baus, the 
third conductor of the Schwenkfelders who also had his home there until 1742, and Span- 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 



33 




//3S 



i%<sP 

























CERTIFICATE OF OWNERSHIP OF LOTS IN GEORGIA. 



34 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

When the Trustees of Georgia heard that the Schwenkfeldian emi- 
grants had turned their course to Pennsylvania, they proposed that a 
Moravian colony be sent to the new province. The suggestion was 
adopted because it opened a prospect for undertaking missionary 
work among the Indians. Twenty men volunteered to go and on 
November 27, 1734, nine of them set out for England.- After a 
tedious and very trying journey they reached London, January 15, 
1735. There they were met by the man who was to be their leader 
to Georgia and had preceded them to England to consult with the 
Trustees and make preparations for the voyage. This man, who will 
be mentioned frequently in these pages, was the Rev. Augustus 
Gottlieb Spangenberg, M.A., a learned young Lutheran divine who 
in 1733 had cast in his lot with the Brethren at Herrnhut. He was 
a noble representative of the mild and liberal type of pietism then 
flourishing at the University of Jena, where he had studied and then 
lectured as a professor. From Jena he had gone to Halle as pro- 
fessor and superintendent of school-work in the famous orphanage. 
Disagreement with the authorities of that university in consequence 
of his zealous, and at times incautious efforts, beyond the limits there 
approved, to cultivate fraternal relations and union in essentials 
among earnest men of different theological views, even proscribed 
heretics and separatists, had led to his summary dismissal by a royal 
decree secured against him by those who antagonized his views and 
feared his influence. This indignity, suffered in 1733, gave him to 
the Moravian Church. He became Count Zinzendorf's most valuable 
coadjutor and his successor in pre-eminent leadership. He, above all 
others, was influential in the establishment of Moravian work in 
America, and next to Zinzendorf is most prominently associated with 
the history of the Church in the eighteenth century both in Europe 
and America. 

He sailed with his little colony from Gravesend, February 6, 1735, 
on the ship The Tzvo Brotliers, Captain Thompson, and landed at 



genberg constituted what they called a Hatisgeimine. At least five religious persuasions 
were represented in this union. Some of these men later joined the Moravian Church. 
Several others, who withdrew from all fellowship as separatists, became its enemies and 
traducers. Wiegner's farm lay two miles south of the present Kulpsville. 

= They were Anton Sdfifert, John Toeltschig, Gotthard Demuth, Michael llaberland, 
George Haberland, Frederick Riedel, Peter Rose, George Waschke and Gottfried Haberecht 
— all but the last from Moravia and near-by parts of Bohemia, and two, Seiflfert and Habe- 
recht, later with the Pennsylvania corps. 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 74O. 35 

Savannah, March 22. Two tracts of land had been granted them, one 
within the laid-out limits of the town, the other a short distance up 
the river. On the latter they built a rude hut, cleared several acres 
and planted corn. Then they proceeded to the erection of a sub- 
stantial house in the town. They suffered much from sickness and 
in September one of them, Frederick Riedel, died. Spangenberg 
supervised their operations, transacted their business with the local 
authorities and tradesmen, served them as pastor and physician and 
even did their cooking for a while so that none of them should have 
to leave their pressing work to perform this lighter duty. 

In the last week of July, 1735, Bishop David Nitschmann started 
from Herrnhut for England with the second American colony of six- 
teen men and eight women. ^ They sailed from Hamburg for England 
in September, embarked at London, October 12, in the ship Simonds, 
Captain Cornish; after lying off the Isle of Wight until December 
10, put out to sea from Cowes, arrived at the mouth of the Savannah 
River, February 16 and finally landed in the town, February 20, 1736. 
With them came to Savannah General James Oglethorpe, Governor 
of Georgia; the Rev. John Wesley and his brother Charles, the Rev. 
Benjamin Ingham, Charles Delamotte, about eighty English passen- 
gers, a company of Salzburg exiles and a few other German and Swiss 
emigrants. 

During the long voyage a warm friendship sprang up between the 
English clergymen and the Moravian Brethren, particularly between 
John Wesley and Bishop Nitschmann, who were much together and 
used the opportunity to learn each other's language. At Savannah 
Mr. Wesley lived with the Moravians until the parsonage he was to 
occupy was vacated by his predecessor, and during those weeks the 
bond was strengthened. He was impressed by the evidence of an 
advanced religious experience which he felt that he had not yet at- 

3 The following persons comprised this second colony ; John Boehner, Matthias Boehjiisch, 
Gottlieb D emut h. Jacob Franck, Christian Adolph von Hermsdorf, David Jag, John Martin 
Macic, John Michael Meyer, Augustine Neisser, George Neisser, Henry Rascher, Matthias 
Seybold, David Tanueberger, his son John Tanneberger, Andrew Dober and Anna h is wife, 
David Zeisberger and Rosina his wife, Regina wife of Gotthard Demuth, Rosina wife of 
Gottfried Haberecht, Catherine wife of Frederick Riedel who had died the previous Sep- 
tember, Judith wife of John Toeltschig, Anna Waschke mother of George Waschke, Juliana 
Jaeschke later married to Waschke. Including the Bishop, fifteen of these colonists, nine 
men and six women were from Moravia and Bohemia. Twelve of them, nine men and 
three women, of which number ten were from Moravia and Bohemia, were subsequently 
among the early inhabitants of Bethlehem. 



36 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

tained, and the secret on which he pondered did not become quite 
clear to him until after his return to England, as he declared, through 
his intercourse with another distinguished leader of the Brethren, 
the Rev. Peter Boehler, whose name is intimately associated with 
that of the Wesleys in the religious history of those times. 

February 28 O. S., March 10 N. S., 1736, was a notable day at that 
first Moravian settlement in America. On that day Bishop Nitsch- 
mann organized the colony as a regular congregation on the plan 
of that at Herrnhut, ordained Anton Seiffert to the ministry and 
installed him in charge of the congregation, and at the same time 
ordained Spangenberg — regarded by virtue of his Lutheran ordina- 
tion as in deacon's orders — a presbyter preparatory to his departure 
for Penns3dvania to engage in other duties.* 

At the same time Nitschmann, who in 1732 had gone to St. Thomas 
with Leonhard Dober and founded the first mission of the Moravian 
Church among the heathen, inaugurated its first missionary effort 
among the North American Indians. The original colonists under 
Spangenberg had won the good will of the celebrated Chief Tomo 
Tschatschi and prepared the way for this work. When the colony 
of 1736 arrived a school house was built on an island in the Savan- 
nah River, about five miles above the town, on which there was an 
Indian village, and to which they gave the name Irene. There on 
September 25, 1736, a school was opened in charge of Benjamin Ing- 
ham, who had offered his serA'ices for a season, assisted by Peter 

4 The date of this first ordination service by a Moravian bishop in America — which so 
deeply impressed Wesley, as he relates in his celebrated Journal — as compared with the 
records of the Anglican and Roman Churches, is noteworthy. Until after the Revolution, 
the representatives of these communions in the English colonies remained under absentee 
episcopal charge, that of the Bishop of London and that of the Vicar Apostolic of London 
respectively, not being favored with the presence of a bishop to perform official acts in this 
country prior to 1 784 and 1790 respectively ; just as the Roman Catholics of the Spanish 
and French settlements were yet under the Suffragan of Santiago de Cuba and the Bishop 
of Quebec. The alleged secret consecration of the Pennsylvania clergymen Wellon and 
Talbot to the episcopacy in 1722 by the English Jacobite Bishop Ralph Taylor — the 
evidence of which is taken as convincing by many — is not treated as an established fact by 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dr. Talbot died at Burlington, N.J., in 1727. Dr. Wel- 
ton — in Philadelphia 1724-26 — died at Lisbon in 1726. Even if such consecration were un- 
questioned, no evidence of any exercise of their episcopate has been found. It would seem 
therefore that the earliest unquestionable record of a regular ordination performed by a 
bishop of the Christian Church in the English colonies of North America is that of the 
ordination of Seiffert at Savannah by David Nitschmann, and that Nitschmann was the first 
bishop who unquestionably both located and performed episcopal functions in these colonies. 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 740. 37 

Rose and his wife.^ Their work flourished unexpectedly. In a few 
months many boys and girls learned to read and a few even learned 
to write. They committed many passages of Scripture to memory 
and deHghted to sing hymns. The adult Indians observed all this 
with wonder and admiration and their interest in hearing "the great 
word" stimulated the efforts of the missionaries to acquire the lan- 
guage of these people in order to communicate with them without 
an interpreter. 

Spangenberg, having fulfilled his mission in Georgia, started for 
Pennsylvania, March 15, 1736, with credentials from Bishop Nitsch- 
mann and a letter of introduction from Governor Oglethorpe to Gov- 
ernor Thomas Penn. He was- commissioned to look after the 
Schwenkfelders in whose welfare Zinzendorf was interested, to inves- 
tigate the spiritual condition of the German population generally and 
to gather information about the Indians. He made his home with 
George Boehnisch at the house of Christopher Wiegner and entered 
enthusiastically upon his new duties. Although Count Zinzendorf 
later said of him that at this time "he was yet too learned to be an 
apostle," he worked as a common laborer on Wiegner's farm in order 
to not be a burden to any one, to identify himself with the rustic popu- 
lation and to disarm the prejudice of those sects which disliked 
schoolmen and gentry and laid much stress on extreme plainness in 
dress and habit as a religious distinction. The knowledge he acquired 
and the experiences he made were of inestimable value to him in his 
subsequent career. During this sojourn in Pennsylvania he became 
acquainted with Henry Antes, already mentioned; Conrad Weiser, 
who gave him much information about the Indians ; John Stephen 
Benezet, the Hugenot merchant of Philadelphia ; Christopher Saur, 

5 This first Moravian sister who engaged in missionary work among the Indians was 
Catherine, m.n, Pudmensky, widow of Frederick Riedel, married to Rose at Savannah. 
She had emigrated from Moravia in 1725, was present at tlie organization of Hermhut in 
1727 and in 1 742 was among the eighty people who entered into the first regular organiza- 
tion at Bethlehem. Her daughter, Mary Magdalen Rose, who in 1763 became the wife of 
the Rev. Paul Peter Bader, was the first Moravian child bom in America. Rose died, March 
12, 1740 at Germantown, Pa. In 1742 the widow was married to John Michael Huber, 
who in 1747 perished at sea in a hurricane on his way to the West Indies as a missionary. 
She was one of the original occupants of the Widows' House at Bethlehem, and served 
many years as a Deaconess. When the fiftieth anniversary of Bethlehem was celebrated in 
1792, she was one of eight of the original eighty persons yet living, and the only one who 
participated in the festivities. She died in Bethlehem in 1798, in the ninety-fifth year of her 
age. There is an oil portrait of her in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem. 



38 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the Germantown printer; John Bechtel, the pious leader of the Ger- 
man Reformed people of Germantown, as well as with all of the Skip- 
pack Brethren, with the heads of the Ephrata Community on the 
Cocalico Creek and of other religious bodies, and with prominent 
members of the Society of Friends. Bishop Nitschmann followed 
him to Pennsylvania in April, 1736, and together they traversed 
many neighborhoods and visited all kinds of religionists. Nitsch- 
mann sailed for Europe, June 23, 1736, and Spangenberg, deputed 
by him, visited the mission on the Island of St. Thomas, sailing from 
New York in August and returning to Pennsylvania near the end 
of November. During his visit in New York he became acquainted 
with Abraham Boemper and Thomas Noble, merchants, and other 
substantial men of the city; with Timothy Horsfield, of Long Island, 
and Jacques Cortelyou, of Staten Island ; and on his return from the 
West Indies, with Captain Nicholas Garrison, also of Staten Island, 
having taken passage with him back to New York. These men, like 
most of the worthy Pennsylvanians mentioned, all subsequently ren- 
dered valuable service to the Moravian colonies and missions ; the 
majority of those named eventually entering into full connection with 
the Church. 

Meanwhile troubles had commenced which four years later brought 
the promising enterprise in Georgia to an untimel}'- end and trans- 
ferred the settled work of the Brethren to Pennsylvania. War broke 
out between the English and the Spaniards of Florida Territory and 
because the Moravians, appealing to the exemption from military duty 
granted them by the Trustees, declined to join the militia, the authori- 
ties at Savannah became hostile to them, and the populace, unre- 
strained by the magistrates, proceeded to annoy them in all kinds of 
ways. Spangenberg, informed of these things by George Neisser, 
who arrived at Wiegner's with a letter from Toeltschig in February, 
'^7Z7> wrote to the Trustees at once and boarded the first ship he 
found ready to sail for Savannah. He arrived there in mid-summer 
and tried to overcome the trouble. In response to his letter, the 
Trustees renewed the exemption of the Moravians from bearing arms, 
merely requiring that they provide two substitutes, one to represent 
each of their tracts of land, and the magistrates at Savannah were 
reprimanded for violating the agreement. Spangenberg returned to 
Pennsylvania in September, 1737, and was occupied as before until 
August, 1739, when he closed the first period of his activitv in America 
and sailed for Europe. 




PETER BOEHLER 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 39 

October 15, 1738, the Rev. Peter Boehler, already referred to, who 
became the leader of the Brethren in America for two years, landed 
at Savannah. He had been a student at Jena when Spangenberg was 
lecturing there and was himself a professor at that seat of learning 
when he was invited to join in the evangelistic work of the Brethren 
with whom he was in close sympathy. Having received the ordina- 
tion of the Moravian Church, he went to England early in 1738 and 
there, prior to sailing for his new field of labor, that intercourse with 
the young men of Oxford, and particularly with the Wesleys, took 
place which formed such a conspicuous episode in the movements 
which gave rise to the Methodist Church. Like Spangenberg he be- 
came a leading bishop of the Church, was scarcely less closely iden- 
tified with its work in America during the first two decades and, as 
theologian, preacher, evangelist and administrator ranks near him 
in its history. He was accompanied to America by George Schulius, 
a Moravian emigrant who had been converted by the first sermon 
he preached at Herrnhut. Besides assuming the pastorate at Savan- 
nah, he was to found a mission among the negro slaves, for which 
Zinzendorf had promised the English originators of the project to 
find a man, and Schulius was to be his assistant. They soon discov- 
ered that they would not be able to carry out this intention on ac- 
count of obstacles put in their way. They also found the Moravian 
colony at Savannah in process of dissolution under the adverse con- 
ditions. A number had left and others had died. They located tem- 
porarily at Purysburg, about twenty miles from Savannah, in Beau- 
fort County, South Carolina, a village founded in 1733 by John Peter 
Pury, from Switzerland, and inhabited by Swiss and German fami- 
lies. While there ministering to these people, they both fell sick and 
on August 4, 1739, Schulius died. His remains were laid in their 
lonely grave by Boehler, himself almost too feeble to stand, assisted 
by Martin Mack, one of the Savannah colonists who had gone to 
their assistance with young David Zeisberger," who remained with 
Boehler until he left the place some weeks later and returned to 
Savannah. Only Anton Seiffert, John Boehner, Martin Mack and 

6 Young Zeisberger, a son of David and Rosina Zeisberger of the Georgia colony, a lad of 
sixteen years when he arrived at Savannah in August, 1737, to the great astonishment of his 
parents, was the future distinguished missionary to the Indians. He and a youthful com- 
panion, John-Michael Schober, had fled from the Moravian school at Herrndyk, in Holland, 
on account of harsh and unjust treatment, made their way to London and from there across 
the ocean to Savannah. Young Schober died there not long after their arrival. 



40 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

David Zeisberger with his wife and their son David remained, await- 
ing developments but utterly discouraged. Hostilities with the 
Spaniards had opened anew and the situation was rendered unbear- 
able for the non-combatant Moravians. Early in January, 1740, John 
Boehner was sent to Pennsylvania to ascertain how those of their 
number fared who had gone there, and to seek a temporary location 
for the rest of them. The same month the Rev. George Whitefield, 
the famous evangelist, arrived the second time at Savannah on his 
sloop, the Savannah, navigated by Captain Thomas Gladman. When 
he sailed again for Philadelphia, April 13, he took Boehler and the 
remaining Moravian colonists with him as passengers. Three other 
persons, whose names figure among the pioneers of Bethlehem, ac- 
companied them ; a young woman, Johanna Hummel, of Purysburg, 
and two indentured lads from Savannah, probably orphans, Benjamin 
Sommers and a certain James, mentioned in all of the records by this 
name only. They landed at Philadelphia, April 25, 1740. With their 
departure the Moravian enterprise in Georgia came to an end. Their 
land and improvements were taken in charge by an agent and White- 
field's adherents were given possession of their town house for hos- 
pital purposes. This collapse of their undertaking was much regret- 
ted by the Trustees of Georgia, who a few years later, when giving 
testimony about the Moravians in connection with the question of 
the formal recognition of their Church by the British government, 
bore evidence to their value as colonists and declared that in Georgia 
they "had done the government great service in labor and other mat- 
ters, equal and superior to the service they could have done as mili- 
tia." The situation was like that which later arose in Pennsylvania 
when a better understanding existed in their relations with the higher 
authorities than with subordinates. 

Meanwhile the leaders in Europe, encouraged by the reports of 
Nitschmann and Spangenberg and a letter from Whitefield urging 
that preachers be sent to the Germans of Pennsylvania, despatched 
three more men to America, all of whom arrived in 1740. The first 
was John Hagen, who reached Savannah, May 18, intending to labor 
among the Indians. The second was Christian Henry Ranch, the 
first Moravian missionary to the northern Indians, who landed at 
New York, July 21. The third was Andrew Eschenbach who arrived 
at Philadelphia in October to itinerate among the Germans. Ranch 
and Eschenbach had received ordination before leaving Europe. 
Another representative of the Moravian Church who passed a brief 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 740. 4I 

season in Pennsylvania at this time was the successful West India 
missionary Frederick Martin, later Missionary Bishop, who in May 
took passage to New York with Captain Nicholas Garrison to seek 
rest and recuperation after much toil and hardship, hoping also to 
meet Count Zinzendorf who intended, after his visit to the Island 
of St. Thomas in 1739, to proceed to Pennsylvania, but had been 
compelled to change his plan. Martin was waiting in New York for 
a ship back to the West Indies when Ranch arrived and met him 
on the dock. Hagen finding the settlement at Savannah abandoned, 
associated with Whitefield's converts, worked at his orphanage 
"Bethesda" and tried to be of spiritual service to some German 
families, being brought meanwhile to the point of death by fever. A 
dispute arose between him and Whitefield on the doctrine of repro- 
bation which the latter held tenaciously and with singular uncharit- 
ableness towards those who disagreed with him. The German mis- 
sionary, who believed that all could be saved who would, was ordered 
off of the fiery preacher's premises, and his converts were warned to 
have nothing to do with the man. Some were disobedient, however, 
and continued to fraternize with Hagen to their mutual benefit until 
he left for Pennsylvania, in February, 1742. 

Besides Johanna Hummel and the two boys already mentioned, ten 
other persons who had become attached to the Brethren at Savannah 
and Purysburg followed them to Pennsylvania in the course of the 
next few years. They were Abraham Bueninger and Anna Catharine 
Kremper, of Purysburg, and John Brownfield, James Burnside, his 
daughter Rebecca, Henry Ferdinand Beck, his wife Barbara, their 
daughter Maria Christina and their sons Jonathan and David, all of 
Savannah. In the acquisition of these people, the most of whom 
became eminently useful at Bethlehem and in Moravian work else- 
where, the only tangible fruit of the Georgia undertaking proved to 
be serviceable in connection with the enterprises in Pennsylvania.^ 

1 Johanna Hum-rnel was married to the missionary John Boehner and died at sea in 1742 
on the way to St. Thomas. 

Benjamin Sommers and James were troublesome lads. The former, after various efforts 
with him, was eventually bound out to Christopher Naumann, a Schwenkfelder of Marburg 
in Old Goshenhoppen in 174S. James, about that time, was figuring in the quality of a boy 
preacher beyond the Blue Mountains, having strayed away to escape watchful oversight. 
There is no mention of either of them after 1750. 

Bueninger came to Pennsylvania with Hagen in 1742, was ordained, 1756, labored among 
Indians and white settlers and in the West Indies, rendering valuable service. He was a 



42 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Boehler and his company expected, on their arrival from Georgia, to 
find Nitschmann or Spangenberg in Pennsylvania with instructions 
about their further movements, but were disappointed and passed 
the first weeks in great perplexity. 

Those who had preceded them to the Province advised them to 
settle at Germantown as they had done and turn attention to their 
own interests, but they considered themselves under commission to 
make the propagation of the gospel their chief pursuit and deemed 
it their duty to await instructions. They passed the time mainly in 
Germantown, partly also at Christopher Wiegner's and with Henry 
Antes. There they were promised by Boehner and George Neisser 
that they would not forsake them, but would likewise remain faithful. 
The Demuths, Tanneberger and several others who had found tem- 
porary employment also signified their intention to remain in con- 



native of Buloch, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, and died in 1811 at Salem, Washington Co., 
N.Y., in his 91st year. His descendants of New York spelled the name Bininger. 

Broiiinjielii, a native of Greenwich, England, was raised in the family of Gen. Oglethorpe, 
accompanied him to Georgia as secretary, came to Bethlehem, 1745, was appointed general 
accountant, served for a time as head steward, was an original officer and a few years secre- 
tary of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel organized, 1745, was ordained, 1749, 
itinerated somewhat among English settlers, died at Bethlehem, 1752. 

Burnsidc from County Meath, Leinster, Ireland, was shop-keeper and accountant for the 
Trustees at SaTannah and then manager of Whitefield's orphanage. After the death of his 
wife at Savannah he visited Bethlehem, 1744, became a resident with his daughter Rebecca, 
1745, married Mary Wendover, one of the first Moravian converts in New York City, ren- 
dered Bethlehem much service in business affairs and public relations, labored a short time 
as an itinerant evangelist, located on a farm just north of Bethlehem on the Monocacy, 
where he died, I7S5' He was the first representative of Northampton Co. in the Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly in 1752. His widow contributed the first ^^50 for the building of the 
Widows' House at Bethlehem. 

Beck, who hailed from Pfluellingen in WUrtemberg, emigrated to Georgia, 173S, joined 
Whitefield's society at Savannah, came to Bethlehem, 1745, was ordained, 1754, labored in 
various country charges and in New York City and died at Bethlehem, 17S3. His son 
David died while laboring as a missionary on the Island of St. Thomas. 

Anna Catherine Kremper (also Krump or Kremp) came to Bethlehem with Becks, mar- 
ried Samuel Mau, served faithfully as a nurse in later years and died at Bethlehem, 179S. 

The following resume from records shows to what extent the personnel of the Georgia 
colony entered into that of Bethlehem and what became of the rest. It also clears up some 
confusion and error in sundry printed statements. Leaving out of the count Spansenberg, 
Nitschmann and Boehler — also John Francis Regnier who went from Pennsylvania, was 
there 1735-38, later missionary in Surinam, then after his return to Pennsylvania, an enemy 
of the Moravians — thirty-seven persons emigrated from Europe to Georgia, Eight died 
there: J73S, Frederick Riedel ; 1736, Matthias Boehnisch, Jacob Frank, Henry Rascher, 
Rosina Haberecht; 1737, George Haberland and the boy John Michael Schober, all at 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 74O. 43 

nection with their brethren and to locate with them if they colonized 
in Pennsj'lvania. 

Before any word from Europe reached them they were, without 
suspecting it, led through the instrumentality of George Whitefield 
to the neighborhood in which their settlement would at last be 
founded. During the voyage from Savannah, Whitefield determined, 
as his financial agent William Seward states in his 'journal, to establish 
"a Negro school in Pennsylvania where he proposed to take up 
land in order to settle a town for the reception of such English friends 
whose heart God should incline to come and settle there." On board 
ship the evangelist wrote to the Secretary of the English Society for 
the Furtherance of the Gospel in Foreign Parts : "To me Pennsylvania 
seems to be the best Province in America for such an undertaking. 
The Negroes meet there with the best usage, and I believe many 
of my acquaintance will either give me or let me purchase their young 
slaves at a very easy rate. I intend taking up a tract of land far 

Savannah; 1739, George Schulius at Purysburg. Six relumed to Europe: 1737, von Hermsdorf, 
Andrew and Anna Dober; 1738, John Toeltschig; 1739, Michael Haberland and his sister 
Judith, wife of Toeltschig. Twenty-three came to Pennsylvania: 1737, George Neisser ; 
1738, Gotthard and Regina Demuth, Gottlieb Demuth, Gottfried Haberecht, David Jag, 
John Michael Meyer, Augustin Neisser, David Tanneberger, John Tanneberger, George and 
Juliana Waschke and his mother Anna Waschke ; 1739, Peter and Catherine Rose, their 
child Mary Magdalen and Matthias Seybold ; 1740, John Boehner, John .Martin Mack, 
Anton Seiffert, David and Rosina Zeisberger and their son David; 1742, John Hagen. 
Ten located at Germantown : Gotthard and Regina Demuth, Augustin Neisser, Peter and 
Catherine Rose and child, George, Juliana and Anna Waschke. Gottlieb Demuth went to 
Matetsche, Jag to Goshenhoppen, Haberecht to Ephrata. Eight clung together with 
Boehler and were the nucleus of the first Moravian settlement in Pennsylvania, viz. : 
Boehner, Mack, George Neisser, SeifTert, Seybold and the Zeisbergers, having with them 
Johanna Hummel and the boys Sommers and James from Georgia. 

Five of those who settled at Germantown subsequently removed to Bethlehem : David 
and John Tanneberger, Catherine Rose (widow 1 740) with her child, Regina Demuth 
(widowed, 1744, at Germantown, married, 1745,10 David Tanneberger). Haberecht left 
Ephrata, 1 741, and rejoined his brethren at Bethlehem. Gottlieb Demuth lived in Frederick 
Township and the Saucon Valley, married Eva Gutsier, lived at intervals at Bethlehem, at 
Allemaengel or Lynn and settled finally at Schoeneck above Nazareth. Jag. Meyer, Aug- 
ustin Neisser and the Waschkes remained where they settled when they came from Georgia, 
never rejoining the Church. The missionary Hagen died at Shamokin in 1747. 

Thus all are accounted for. Eight died in Georgia, two, Rose and Gotthard Demuth, 
died at Germantown prior to 1745. Six returned to Europe. Seven who settled in Penn- 
sylvania forsook the Moravian Church. Fourteen with their seven converts from Georgia 
and their children, a company of thirty persons became identified with Bethlehem and 
Nazareth, and fifteen of these were employed in the service of the church. 



44 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

back ill the country." An agreement for the purchase of five thousand 
acres of land recommended to him by Scotch Irish settlers in "the 
Forks of the Delaware," was made with William Allen, of Phila- 
delphia, on May 3, 1740. Two days later when Whitefield and Boehler 
jointly conducted services at the houses of Wiegner and Antes, 
Whitefield proposed to Boehler that he undertake to superintend the 
erection of the contemplated house on his land and employ the 
Moravians who were with him, several of them being carpenters and 
masons. The proposition was regarded favorably and on May 6 
Boehler and Seififert accompanied by Antes set out on horseback to 
inspect the locality. They passed a night at the place and the next 
day, after examining the timber, stone and springs of water, and 
discussing various eligible building sites, they returned to the home 
of Antes where on May 10 the contract with Whitefield was definitely 
concluded. May 29, Boehner, Mack, Seififert, the Zeisbergers, 
Johanna Hummel and the boys Benjamin and James, provided with 
tools, a meager stock of eatables and the barest necessaries for 
camping in the woods, started from Germantown for this tract which 
William Allen and wife had on May 1 1 deeded to Whitefield and which 
he with the intended school and village in mind had named Nazareth.' 

8 This tract of 5000 acres — almost identical in its metes and bounds with the present 
Upper Nazareth Township — which the next year came into the possession of the Moravian 
Church, with title held by the Countess Zinzendorf, who provided the purchase-money, is 
occasionally called " The Barony of Nazareth " in records of colonial times, because its title 
carried with it certain old seignioral prerogatives of the Hundreds and Baronies of Great 
Britain and Ireland. It was the final parcel of a grant of 25,000 acres made in 1682 by 
William Penn to his daughter Laetitia Aubry and conveyed to her September 24-25, 1731, 
by John, Thomas and Richard Penn. The deed granted "the Franchise, Royalty, Right, 
Privilege. Liberty and Immunity to erect the said 5000 acres of land, or any part or parts 
thereof, into a manor, and to have and to hold Court Baron therein with all things whatso- 
ever which to a Court Baron do belong ; and also to have and to hold Views of Frank- 
pledge for the conservation of the peace and better government by the said Laetitia Aubry, 
her heirs and assigns, or by her or their steward or stewards, and to use all things belonging 
to Frankpledge." It was to "be holden of the said John Penn and Thomas Penn (Pro- 
prietary Governors) in free and common socage as of the Seigniory of Windsor free and 
discharged of and from the debts and legacies of the said William Penn, Sr., yielding and 
paying therefor one Red Rose on the 24th day of June yearly, if the same shall be 
demanded, in full of all services, customs and rents." Its lines were run by Benjamin 
Eastburn, Surveyor General of Pennsylvania, "on or about the 4th day of June, 1731;,' 
for William Allen who purchased it with the franchises and obligations for ;^50o sterling. 
These dignities and privileges of the manor passed with the title through the several con- 
veyances and nominally pertained to it until the termination of Proprietary government in 
Pennsylvania rendered them null and void. 

They were never exercised or claimed, but under Moravian ownership were referred to 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 74O. 45 

They reached their destination the next day towards evening. When 
the sun vi^ent down and night gathered around them this little band 
of homeless wanderers broke the silence of the dark, wild forest with 
an evening hymn of praise, committed themselves to the Keeper of 
Israel who never slumbers nor sleeps, and stretched their weary limbs 
to rest beneath the spreading branches of a giant oak under which, 
some weeks before, the three riders had lain down to sleep, and which 
for more than six decades after it first sheltered these pilgrims 
remained standing, a venerable landmark known as "Boehler's Oak." 

Thus began Moravian history in the Forks of the Delaware. So 
thoroughly are the institutions and activities which arose out of that 
humble beginning identified with this interesting region, with the 
fortunes of its tawny natives retreating before the white man's ad- 
vance, with the associations of its streams and hills and with memor- 
able events in the course of years involving relations to all the ele- 
ments of its population, that a few salient features of its general situ- 
ation and early opening up to settlement naturally come into view to 
be noted here as background and border to the sketch which these 
pages are designed to present. 

Narrowly understood, the term "Forks of the Delaware" meant 
the locality just within the confluence of the Delaware River and the 
Lehigh or "West Fork of the Delaware,"^ and a few miles up these 

on occasions as privileges in reserve in connection with questions of legal status, magisterial 
jurisdiction, militia duty, and the like. They were apparently in mind in 1742 in connection 
with the thought of founding the chief establishment on this manor as contemplated at one 
time; and again in 1754 when it was confidently expected that Count Zinzendorf would 
take up his residence in Pennsylvania, and the building of his large manor house, later 
called Nazareth Hall, was finally commenced. The romantic quit-rent — a red rose in June 
■ — led to naming the Moravian hostelry on the northern border of the Barony " The Rose." 
In the archives at Bethlehem there remains, on an old list of Moravian taxables with 
memoranda, evidence of a little " War of the Roses," waged not with the sword, but with 
the pen, in that the scrivener who drew up the document, in alluding to this token, wrote by 
mistake ''a white rose," and another, objecting to this unauthorized transfer of fealty from 
Lancaster to York, ran his quill through the word " white " and wrote above it " red." 

9 The principal names given the Delaware River by the Unami tribe of the Lenape or 
Delawares living in the Forks were Lenape-wihittuck, meaning river of the Lenafe ; and 
Kit-hanne, or in the dialect of the Minsi tribe of the upland Minisinks beyond the Kitta- 
tinny hills, Gicht-haniie, meaning the prineipal stream. The Dutch in 1609 named it 
Zuydtj i.e. South River. They also spoke of it as Nassau River and Prince Hendrick'' s 
River. The Swedes, thirty years later, gave it the name Swenska Revier, i.e. Sivecies' 
River, while they also referred to it as the South River. Meanwhile the English, who 
ultimately forced their claim and name, called it the Delaware after Lord de la Ware, sup- 



46 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

streams — the picturesque gateway to the upper country, with Indian 
trails diverging towards several interior points ; but the name was 
more broadly applied to the whole range of country from this Place 
of the Forks to the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, between the 
courses of the two rivers, with the Delaware Gap at the eastern and 
the Lehigh Gap at the western extremity — identical with the present 
area of Northampton County, except that its two south-most town- 
ships protrude beyond and one little township of Lehigh County en- 
croaches within these natural boundaries of the domain. 

This attractive and desirable region remained until 1737 nominally 
a part of the acknowledged Indian country, for under the terms of 
the deed of release given by the seven Indian chiefs in 1718 and con- 
firmed by treaty in 1728, the "Lechay Hills" continued to be the limit 
of the ceded territory open to settlement. But encroachments had 
taken place which made the Delawares uneasy. Besides the settle- 
ments on the upper Delaware opened prior to 1701, two had arisen 
in the Forks : one in 1728, called at first Craig's Settlement, from the 
name of its leading pioneer, Thomas Craig, and later popularly known 
as the Irish Settlement, in what is now East Allen Township ; another 
in 1732 along the slate slopes of the present Lower Mount Bethel 
Township under Alexander Hunter, and called for a time Hunter's 
Settlement. The population of both were Presbyterian Ulster Scots. 
These, with here and there a solitary pioneer who had built his cabin 
at some spot that struck his fancy when reconnoitering along the 
Delaware or the Lehigh, or roaming these rich hunting-grounds of 
the red men, were the first neighbors of the Moravians in the Forks. 



posed to have sailed up the stream soon after the Dutch, and the Lenape roaming along its 
course they then named Delaware Indians. 

The name of the West Branch was Lechauweeki, i.e. where there are forks — variations, 
Lechazuiechink, Lechauwekink. It was shortened into Lecha, the name yet used by the 
Germans of the region, and then corrupted into Lehigh. Reference to Lechay occurs in 
colonial records as early as 1701. This name seems to have come into use not merely for 
the river, but also for the neighborhood where were the forks of streams and paths. Men 
spoke of Lechay in this sense as they later spoke of " the Forks." The most important 
trail to the Minisinks, followed by the Moravian pioneers, led from the terminus of the first 
King's Road from Philadelphia to these parts at the stone-quarry of Irish the miller, near 
the present Shimersville on the Saucon Creek, across the Lehigh at the " old Indian ford," 
a little distance below where the Menagassi or Menakcssi ( Alonakasy, Monocasy or Mono- 
cacy) i.e. creek with bends, flows into the river. The Delawares called the site of Easton 
Lec/iauwitank, i.e. in the Porks, and that of Bethlehem Menagachsink, i.e. at the bending 
creek. They later applied these names to the two towns. 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 47 

But more ambitious schemes than any cherished by these humble 
settlers who, as a rule, lived on peaceful terms with the Indians, were 
closing grasping hands about this grand domain. In 1733 William 
Allen, ^^ of Philadelphia, in addition to his other large acquisitions, had 
an unlocated holding of ten thousand acres which had been conveyed 
to him by William Penn, grandson of the original Proprietor, sur- 
veyed in the Minisinks and parts of the Forks and began to dispose 
of it in parcels. 

In 1734 the Proprietaries instituted a lottery of a hundred thousand 
acres of land, offering adventurers chances on tracts covered by pro- 
prietary patent and yet unconveyed by deed. The scheme collapsed 
and the drawing did not take place, but in 1735 it was arranged that 
holders of tickets who lived in the Forks could locate claims there 



10 William Allen, already mentioned several times, whose name is associated with so 
much of the land acquired by the Moravians, was the second in a succession of three, father, 
son and grandson, who bore the name of William, and the best known of this prominent 
Pennsylvania family ; having, among other distinctions, filled the office of Chief Justice of 
the Commonwealth from 1751 to 1774. He was the father-in-law of John Penn, the last 
Proprietary Governor, and his son James was the founder of Northampton, now Allentown, 
which grew out of his summer residence Trout Hall on the Jordan Creek. A list of all the 
deeds for land executed by William Allen would be a long one, and if every conveyance 
netted a profit like that realized on the Barony of Nazareth — a rise from ;^5oo to ;^2200, as 
mere iiurementiim latens, after five years' possession — the statement on record that he be- 
came the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania would follow very naturally. By force of training, 
official obligation and connections he was identified with the conservative party which urged 
the further effort by constitutional process to remedy evils in preference to revolutionary 
measures in 1776, fell under the odium of being a tory, lost his wealth and influence, went 
to England during the I^evolution and after his return disappeared from public view in the 
turmoil of the times, ending his days in retirement. The last connection between Judge 
Allen and the Moravians, after many years of friendly official and personal intercourse, is 
given in the following extract from a letter written by the Rev. Daniel Sydrich, the Mora- 
vian pastor in Philadelphia to Bishop Nathanael Seidel of Bethlehem, September 12, 1780: 
" Wednesday the 6th inst., good old William Allen departed this life quite unexpectedly at 
his country seat Airy Hill (Mount Airy) and his body was buried here the next day. Two 
months ago I sounded him through Mr. Peter Miller, after learning that our church-lot is 
yet under his control after all, as to whether he would not be willing to make us a present 
of the ground, do a good deed thereby and establish a pleasing monument to his memory 
among us. He would not listen to this however and said (his own words in English quoted 
in-the German letter) he was a ruined and poor man, met with too many and great losses 
and had hardly so much that he could send his servants to market." Pastor Sydrich then 
adds : " So it goes at last with the rich of this world, and from this very many find out in 
these times that it is not well to trust in uncertain riches. Next December the four years' 
ground rent will be due him which amounts to twenty guineas. This will also be a hard 
nut for our people." 



48 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and thus some acquired title to land in these parts prior to settle- 
ment with the Indians, who were now proceeding from murmurs to 
threats. That same year the government, after vain attempts to quiet 
them, appealed to the deputies of the Six Nations composing the 
Iroquois Confederacy, who were in Philadelphia to complete a treaty 
opened in 1732, asking them to use their authority with the Indians 
of the Forks when it should be necessary. The Delawares acknowl- 
edged a certain vassalage to this powerful union and were called 
"women" by the Iroquois. ^^ 

Measures were then taken to secure the extinction of Indian title 
to lands in the Forks under some semblance of agreement. A docu- 
ment was brought to light, the long oblivion of which, if it was genu- 
ine, none of the eiiforts to put a fair face on the proceedings which 
followed have quite satisfactorily explained. It purported to be a 
deed made, August 30, 1686, by certain chiefs to William Penn for 
the territory extending from the upper line of the last preceding 
purchase — the Neshaminy Purchase of 1682 — in a northerly direc- 
tion, continuing the north-northwest line of that purchase as far as 
a man could walk in a day and a half and thence eastward to the 
Delaware. The paper was marked "a copy" and was without signa- 
tures. The original instrument signed has never been seen or heard 

" This confederacy first consisted of " the Five Nations," viz., the Mohawks, Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. In 1715 the Tuscaroras of kindred stock joined the 
league, and it was then called "the Six Nations." Decided differences of opinion have 
prevailed as to the meaning of the term " women," as applied by them to the Lenni-Lenape 
or Delawares, who had claimed the highest dignity of origin and standing among the 
branches and tribes of the race. It has most generally been taken to denote their utter sub- 
jugation and contemptuous humiliation as warriors, after being so completely worsted in 
protracted conflict that they submitted to any terms their vanquishers imposed. 

Delaware tradition made the term one of honor — the umpires between warring parties, 
holding the middle of the chain of friendship on their shoulders while the parties otherwise 
at variance held the ends. Thus the " women " covenanted to prevent decimating warfare 
while following peaceful pursuits. They tell, and herein compromise their reputation for 
sagacity, that after long wars the Iroquois, finding them invincible, beguiled them into this 
plausible scheme and then perverted the meaning of the name and assumed the role of 
masters. In 1742 when, at another Indian conference in Philadelphia, the head chief of 
the confederacy, in compliance with the request of the government and with a view to 
winning favor, peremptorily ordered the Delawares with words of withering scorn, to leave 
the Forks forthwith, there was no mistaking what the Si.t Nations understood the term 
"women " to mean. Not until 179S, after the defeat and downfall of the Iroquois in war 
with the government, did they, as a stroke of expediency, formally disassociate the figurative 
woman's dress, garniture and utensils from their " cousins," the Delawares, and acknowledge 
them again to be warriors. 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 49 

of. It was designed to cover the whole region embraced in the 
Forks of the Delaware and, as the sequel proved, a large portion of 
the best land in the Minisinks beyond the mountains besides ; the 
exact direction of the line from the end of the walk to the Delaware 
being significantly left blank. In April, 1735, the walk was experi- 
mentally made to ascertain what this conveyance, so unaccountably 
forgotten for fifty years and so strangely stultified by the acts of 
1718 and 1728, would cover. The form of a treaty was gone through 
at Durham, August 25, 1737, when this document was produced and 
the chiefs were asked to ratify it. They were in doubt about it, but 
the alleged parties to the contract being dead, they were not in a 
position to disprove the writing. They therefore gave dubious assent 
and asked that the lines be run at once, if so it must be, and an end 
made of the matter. September 12, 1737, was set for the walk, but 
court being in session it was postponed to the 19th. At sunrise on 
that day three selected pedestrians and three Indians, accompanied 
by officials and attendants on horseback, started from the point 
agreed upon, and at noon the next day, when time was called, one 
walker who held out to the end struck his hatchet into a tree on the 
slope of the Pocono or Broad Mountain.^- The Indians resented the 
extension of the walk beyond the Kittatinny Mountains and when the 
line to the Delaware, instead of striking the shortest course, as thev 
expected, was run north-eastward at right angles to the line of the 
walk, taking in a large section of the Minisinks, they were enraged, 
especially so the Minsis of that region who were not parties to the 
agreement and did not consider themselves bound by any contracts 
made by the Delawares of the south side ; and the scheme was con- 
summated amid sullen threats of vengeance. 



'2 One of the famous walkers was Solomon Jennings, a pioneer settler on the Lehigh 
above the site of Bethlehem, where the •• Geissinger farms" lie, a good neighbor and friend 
of the Moravians and a celebrated Nimrod of the region, whose son was later sheriff of 
Northampton County, and whose son-in-law was Nicholas Scull, Surveyor General of Penn- 
sylvania. Another was Edmund Yeates, who became blind and died prematurely from the 
strain. The third — he who finished the walk — was Edward Marshall, the hero of many 
wonderful tales, who lived to be nearly ninety years old. Jennings and the Indians, unable 
to keep up the pace, dropped out on reaching the Lehigh and deserted. The route was 
from near the present Wrightstown by the old Durham road to Durham Creek, then, veering 
westward, to the Lehigh which was crossed at the "old Indian ford" (see note 9), over the 
site of Bethlehem, through the present Hanover Township of Lehigh County and Allen 
Township of Northampton County to the Lehigh Gap, and thence on to the Pocono Moun- 
tain, the distance being about sixty-five miles. 

5 



so A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

This was the famous "Walking Purchase" by which all Indian 
claim and title to this large domain was held to be extinguished for- 
ever. Eighteen years later when other grievances had accumulated 
and the Indians were cunningly beguiled into alliance with the French 
and furnished their opportunity, they carried those threats into awful 
execution with tomahawk and torch, dealing out indiscriminate, sav- 
age retribution to old and young, weak and strong, good and bad 
ahke, in a reign of terror which stands on record as the most dismal 
episode in the history of the Forks of the Delaware. 

Five years after the walk was made the last Indians reluctantly sur- 
rendered possession and removed from the Forks, and it so happened 
that the Moravian pioneers who most particularly had come to the 
region with peaceable and benevolent intentions toward the savages, 
were especially subjected to annoyance and even danger from some 
of this obstinate remnant loitering behind. They lived on the Naza- 
reth tract, quite near to where Whitefield's agents staked off the 
foundation Hnes of the proposed house soon after the arrival of the 
Moravians. Their village was called Welagameka, which meant rich 
soil. They applied this term also to the surrounding locality. They 
had a small space in cultivation ; had a peach orchard and a burial 
ground near their village, not far from which stood the historic oak 
already referred to, hard by the path to the Minisinks. Their chief 
was known as Captain John, one of the six doughty sons of the noted 
Delaware chieftain called old Captain Harris — high-spirited, sensitive 
men, cherishing grudges against the English and smarting under the 
indignities put upon them by the Six Nations ; the most famous of 
them being that subtle master of Indian finesse, Teedyuscung, half- 
brother of Captain John, who took the lead in subsequent manoeuvres 
to recover Delaware prestige, and to whom there will be occasion to 
refer again. The final departure of this last band from Welagameka 
did not take place until the close of 1742, after peremptory orders 
from their lords, the deputies of the Six Nations, at the request of 
the Governor at Philadelphia in July of that year, in return for the 
promise of the latter to interfere with the invasion of Indian territory 
by whites in other quarters. Even then it required a concession from 
the Moravians in the shape of an indemnity for improvements aban- 
doned to induce them to vacate peaceably ; the government having 
previously objected to their being thus "bought off." Details of this 
settlement with Captain John's troop will be noticed in proper con- 
nection. They were therefore on the ground yet, calling it their own 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1 74O. Si 

in defiance of the fate which hung over them since the walk of 1737 
and in contempt of all the impressive muniments of parchment with 
which others defended their title to it, when operations in pursuance 
of Whitefield's plans were commenced ; keeping peace with the Mora- 
vians, however, partly in response to friendly assurances and partly 
in the hope of being paid to leave, in which hope they were encour- 
aged by some white neighbors. 

The pioneers who arrived there at the end of May, 1740, experi- 
enced trying times during the following months. Their first shelter 
under the great oak tree was a rude framework of poles roofed with 
bark and wattled with leafy branches of tree-tops, until they built a 
cabin of unhewn logs which was gotten under roof at the close of 
July. During those weeks it rained nearly every day. Boehler, who 
had meanwhile secured a force of lime-burners, quarrymen, masons, 
board-cutters and teamsters from Goshenhoppen, Whitemarsh, Maxa- 
tawny. Lower Saucon and elsewhere, rejoined them the last day of 
June. The work moved slowly on account of the frequent rain, diffi- 
culty with the lime and sand and the incompetence of some of the 
workmen. When September opened with another rainy season and 
the walls were laid up only to the doorsills, at an outlay of about 
£300, the hope of completing them to the roof before winter was 
abandoned. The workmen hired at other places were discharged and 
the Brethren, by permission of Whitefield's agents, set about the erec- 
tion of a better house of hewn timber in which to pass the winter. 
It was so far finished as to be habitable at the beginning of Novem- 
ber.^^ Boehler, hearing that Whitefield had again arrived in Pennsyl- 
vania from Georgia, went to Philadelphia in November to report the 
condition of things. He found the famous preacher changed in his 
manner and disposed to be unfriendly. The displeasure he had car- 
ried away with him from his doctrinal encounter with the missionary 
Hagen in Georgia in defense of the theory of the predestination of 
some to perdition as well as of others to salvation was increased by 
the report that Boehler also. opposed this teaching. He moreover 
found certain ministers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 



13 This house was subsequently used some years for school purposes and, 1755-6S, as a 
home for Moravian widows. It is yet standing on the premises of the Whitefield House 
which since 1S71 has been set apart as a home for superannuated or disabled missionaries 
and pastors, with the little log house as one of its adjuncts, furnishing a snug retreat for one 
and another retired minister content to accupy the humble, quaint and historic " gray 
cottage." 



52 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

who also held this view, inveighing against the Moravians, with no 
acquaintance as yet with them personally or their doctrines, incited 
by a misleading "pastoral letter" of warning from the Classis of Am- 
sterdam issued three years before and at this time being circulated in 
America. Many people, among others the neighbors of the Moravian 
pioneers in the Forks, were led by these clerical onslaughts to imagine 
that the arrival of these persons from Herrnhut was the most serious 
menace to religion and the common welfare that had yet appeared. 
Whitefield's previous association with them now jeopardized his 
popularity among men of his theological persuasion, and he felt con- 
strained, as a champion on trial before admirers, to vindicate himself 
in the arena of controversy. Therefore, to Boehler's surprise, he at 
once opened the scholastic discussion for which many had been wait- 
ing eagerly. It was carried on in Latin in which language both of these 
young schoolmen could argue better than either could in the language 
of the other. The Oxford orator failed to convince the Magister of 
Jena that his conception of the Divine decrees was correct and quite 
lost his temper, imperiously declaring that the Moravians must leave 
his land forthwith and need not expect to get possession of a foot of 
it. Boehler retorted that they had no intention of locating per- 
manently on his tract, that he was surprised at his bigotry and pope- 
like bearing and that doubtless if he had the power of the Pope he 
would proceed against them with fire and sword. Thereupon White- 
field closed the interview with the curt ultimatum : "sic volo, sic jubeo, 
stet pro ratione voluntas." Although this was not a very creditable 
triumph in argument, it satisfied those who merely wished to see the 
leader of the Moravians put down, no matter how, and it led to the 
next important step towards the spot at which their settlement was to 
be founded. This summary expulsion of the Brethren from the 
Nazareth land was directly proclaimed with satisfaction in the neigh- 
borhood by some of the near-by settlers who were prejudiced against 
them. One of the gathering-places of the region at which the matter 
was naturally discussed was the mill of Nathanael Irish on the Saucon 
Creek.^* He was one of those who discarded church-connection and 

14 Mr. Irish who appears in various important and interesting connections with the early 
Moravians in the Forks, had located some time prior to May, 1737, on 306 acres of land 
where the village of Shimersville is situated, near the mouth of the Saucon Creek. There 
he opened a farm, built a mill, established a land-office as agent of William Allen, and in 
1 741 was commissioned a Justice of the Peace. His place, the terminus in 1740 of the 
first highway from Philadelphia to the Lehigh (see note 9) was a general rendezvous. This 
mill remained standing until 1812 and his dwelling until 1816; the former on the farm of 
the late John Knecht, the latter at the site of the William Shimer residence. He subse- 
quently removed from the neighborhood and died in 17^8 at Union Furnace in New Jerse). 



PIONEER JIOVEMENTS TO I74O. 



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,(Mi;fi^Vw..,^y^ 



1 ^~v; I'l 









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'r J 



JNJ^ 



iW 
















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54 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

had little respect for religion, on account of the ceaseless sectarian 
bickerings and the rabid polemics of theologians in which religious 
activity mainly consisted in those days, but he acted a Christian part 
towards the little band of Moravian pioneers in that trying hour for 
which he was held in grateful remembrance. His comment on the 
occurrence was that he had his doubts about Whitefield's religion if 
he drove the Moravians away, for he had learned to know them as 
good people. Being one of the important and influential men of the 
vicinity, his representations through Whitefield"s agents, persuaded 
the impetuous clergyman to waive his contention on subtleties of 
theological speculation in favor of humane sentiment, and to forbear 
turning these people out of the house they had built into the wilder- 
ness at the beginning of winter. He also offered to sell them, on 
easy terms, five hundred acres of William Allen's land lying on the 
north bank of the Lehigh River, at the mouth of the Monocacy 
Creek, a desirable tract which he intended to retain for himself. 
Boehler had during the summer frequently taken grain to his mill to 
be ground, and they had become well acquainted. His offer was the 
subject of several interviews between them, but no' conclusion could 
be reached until word was received from Europe in reference to the 
contemplated settlement in Pennsylvania. 

After securing the refusal of this tract and arranging with Irish 
for a sufficient supply of meal to keep his little band of people from 
suffering hunger, Boehler settled down with them in their winter- 
quarters to wait. They occupied the next several weeks in completing 
their house, making the first rough building more comfortable for 
the use of part of their number, and gathering a store of firewood. 
The clouds of uncertainty in reference to further plans were suddenly 
dispelled to their inexpressible joy by the arrival on December i8 
of Bishop David Nitschmann, who had reached Philadelphia three 
days before. With him came his uncle, David Nitschmann, senior. 
Christian Froelich, Anna Nitschmann, daughter of the elder Nitsch- 
mann, and Johanna Sophia Molther.^'^ 



'5 This new contingent of pioneers increased to 31 the number of persons in the North 
American colonies at the close of 1740 who had been in connection with the Brethren in 
Europe, of whom 29 were at this time in Pennsylvania, viz., 21 of the 23 who came to Penn- 
sylvania from Georgia — one, Rose, having died — Christopher ISaus, who had come over in 
1734, the three previous .accesions of 1740, John Hagen, still in Georgia, Christian Henry 
Rauch, among the Indians in New York, Andrew Eschenbach. itinerating in Pennsylvania, 
together with Boehler, Bishop Nitschmann, and the four persons who had come with the 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 55 

They had come to finally carry out plans of operation in Pennsyl- 
vania in pursuance of the original thought of 1727, which had been 
taking shape since the first General Synod of the resuscitated Church 
held in the old castle of Marienborn in 1736, after Zinzendorf's banish- 
ment from Saxony, when measures for the extension of missionary 
work and the planting of colonies in foreign lands were specially dis- 
cussed. At the second such gathering held at the seat of the Counts 
of Reuss-Ebersdorf in June, 1739, when Zinzendorf had returned from 
the Island of St. Thomas, Spangenberg reported his observations in 
Pennsylvania and outlined a scheme of activity there, embracing 

latter — together 31. There were, including the three wards from Georgia, 15 at Nazareth. 
The four newly arrived deserve special introduction. 

David Nitschmann, Senior, usually called " Father Nitschmann," who stood in the third 
known generation of this notable Moravian family, a native of Zauchtenthal, Moravia, 
wheelwright and joiner by trade, for some years a substantial citizen and a village officer of 
Kunwald near his birthplace, had, like some of his ancestors, suffered imprisonment and 
even bodily torture for conscience sake. From 1725, when he emigrated to Herrnhut, to 
his arrival in Pennsylvania, he had been entrusted with various important duties and had 
shared the sufferings of the luckless colony sent in 1734 to the Island of St. Croix where 
he left his wife among the ten who died. He was sixty-four years old when he came to 
Pennsylvania, but took the lead in opening the settlement, was the master-builder for some 
years, and was one of the most reliable and influential men in official position. He was the 
first of the Brethren who became a naturalized citizen of Pennsylvania in order, as the first 
of the nominal "proprietors" of the estates of the Church, when it had no legal corporate 
existence, to hold the title in fee simple to its property. His character combined a rare 
blending of force and amiability with sterling honesty and childlike piety, and as the patri- 
arch of Bethlehem until his death in 1758 he was held in peculiar reverence and affection ; 
but the title " Founder of Bethlehem" given him on the stone which marks his grave in the 
old cemetery is a misnomer, for this designation belongs to his nephew, the Bishop, also 
buried there. In the archives at Bethlehem there is an oil portrait of Father Nitschmann. 

Anna Charity^ his daughter, commonly only known by her first name, was the most note- 
worthy woman of her time who held official position in the Moravian Church. Although 
only twenty-five years old when she visited Pennsylvania, she was already invested with the 
dignity of an eldress. Under the system of that time she was raised to the position of a 
kind of sister superior of all the single women of the Moravian congregadons and settle- 
ments. On May 4, 1730, she had instituted a special covenant of consecrated service 
among seventeen young women and girls out of which grew the so-called choir-system, i.e. 
the special organization of classes called "choirs" among the membership, which will be 
treated of more fully elsewhere. She became Zinzendorf s second wife and died at Herrn- 
hut in 1760, having returned to Europe in 1743. Juliana Nitschmann, wife of Bishop John 
Nitschmann, also a distinguished woman, who died at Bethlehem and whose grave occupies 
a conspicuous place in one of the walks of the old cemetery, is sometimes mistaken for 
Anna Nitschmann. 

Johanna Sophia Alolther, at this time only twenty-two years old, was the wife of the 
Rev. Philip Henry Molther, later bishop, who was to have accompanied the party to Penn- 



56 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

itinerant preaching in the settlements, schools for the hosts of neg- 
lected children and missions among the Indians at several points, all 
to be carried on from a central settlement to be founded, and it was 
concluded that Bishop Nitschmann should proceed again to Pennsyl- 
vania and establish such a settlement. When the third General Synod 
met at Gotha in June, 1740, the persons were selected to accompany 
him in addition to Hagan, Rauch and Eschenbach already appointed 
to go to America, and steps were taken towards the formation of a 
considerable colony to consist in part of the personnel of the short- 
lived colony of Pilgerruh in Holstein which was to be abandoned in 
consequence of the opposition of jealous clergy influencing the author- 
ities. When therefore Nitschmann and his company arrived at the 
Barony of Nazareth, the choice of a location and arrangements for the 
purchase of land at once engaged attention, and the offer of Nathanael 
Irish was further considered. Boehler received a call to return to 
Europe and undertake important duties in England. He went to see 
the miller once more, introduced Bishop Nitschmann and commended 
him to the same courteous treatment that he had experienced. Mr. 
Irish assured them of his good will and renewed his ofifer of the tract 
on the Lehigh. Boehler left on December 27, visited Wiegner, Antes 
and friends in Philadelphia, and then, accompanied by Nitschmann, 
proceeded to New York where, after forming a little association of 
devout people similar to that of the Skippack Brethren in Pennsyl- 
vania, he sailed for England on January 29, 1741.'° 



sylvania, but missed the ship at London. She was by birth a baroness von Seidewitz, was 
one of the original pupils of the first school for girls at Herrnhut and was one of Anna 
Nitschmann's associates in the covenant of 1730. After more than a year devoted to 
arduous spiritual labors among her sex in Pennsylvania, like her young companion on this 
journey, she returned to Europe in 1742. She died at Herrnhut in iSoi. 

Christian Froehlich, formerly a baker and confectioner in the family of Zinzendorf, who 
recognized special capabilities in him, was called to accompany Bishop Nitschmann to Penn- 
sylvania. He figured in many ways during the first years at Bethlehem and elsewhere, and 
devoted some time to missionary work among the Indians and in the West Indies. Later 
he was engaged in secular employment some years in New York. He died at Bethlehem 
in 1776. 

16 In connection with some of these and subsequent movements, until regular diaries were 
begun in 1742, there is occasional confusion of order and dates in some published narratives 
based on original and secondary manuscript sources ; owing to the use in some of old, in 
others of new style dates ; while yet others slate time indefinitely, e.g. "end of December " 
(i.e. O. S.), "second week in January" (i.e. N. S ), or even "middle of J.-inuary," in refer- 
ring to the same occurrence — both approximately correct according to the calendar in mind 
Double dating was commonly observed by the Brethren in Pennsylvania in their official 



PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO I74O. 57 

Prior to his departure he rendered the pioneers a Httle service, held 
in affectionate remembrance, wliich was more in liis sphere than some 
of his duties had been. It was the preparation of choral liturgies, em- 
bodying verses of his own composition, for the lovefeast they held 
with a frugal meal of corncake and drink of roasted rye on Christmas 
Eve — undoubtedly the first Christmas service in the Forks of the 
Delaware — and for the first Moravian celebration of the Holy Com- 
munion in Pennsylvania which followed the Vigils. The manuscript 
copies of these liturgies were preserved as tender mementos of that 
time when the band of pilgrims, enduring hardness as good soldiers, 
renewed their covenant before the vision of the manger and the cross. 

Hope and courage were revived before they said farewell to the 
man who had been their devoted leader, for at last there was a fair 
prospect that they would soon set foot on a spot which they could call 
their own. Two days before that Christmas Eve, and after Bishop 
Nitschmann's interview with Nathanael Irish, three of them, Father 
Nitschmann, Martin Mack, and another, probably Anton Seiffert or 
young David Zeisberger, shouldered their axes and strolled down 
through the woods to the Lehigh to look about "the Allen Tract." 
Anticipating the purchase, they felled the first tree at the place 
selected by them as a desirable building-site, some distance from the 
river, aside of the "Indian path" that led up from the ford into the 
north-west trail to the mountains. It was on a wooded slope crowning 
a bluff that descended to the Monocacy, where the most copious 
spring of the region gushed out of the lime-stone bed at the foot of 
the declivity. Its flow could not be barred by the frost that browned 
its fringe of ferns, stripped its canopy of birch and maple and set the 
rippling surface of the near-by stream in a frigid glaze. Perhaps, as 
they noted the volume of its crystal jet forcing a passage upward 

records until 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was finally adopted by England. This 
extended in some records to even following the cumbrous old practice of noting the double 
year in dating between January i and March 25 (Annunciation or "Lady Day") the old 
English legal New Year Day. Ordinarily when single dates occur in letters or journals of 
Brethren from Germany, where the new calendar was used in all of the states after 1700, 
it may be assumed, in the absence of parallel records for comparison, that new style is 
meant. Instead of December 27, as above, some old records give "middle of January" as 
the time of Boehler's departure from Nazareth, apparently taking December 27 for O.S. But 
this date is unquestionably correct according to N. S. It agrees with his autobiography in 
which he uses N. S. dates. He says he left "towards the end of December" and states 
that he spent his birthday (December 31) at Wiegner's. The dates taken in these pages 
are uniformly N. S. wherever the records make it possible to determine this point. 



58 A HISTORV OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

through the snow, marked where an easy path descended to the spot 
and inspected the banks of the creek with a view to constructing the 
first bridge at that point, they thought not only of a house but of a 
future town on the ridge above suppHed by this abundant fount where 
multitudes through generations to come, prizing this primitive boon 
of their goodly place, like the ancient king whose name four of those 
first settlers bore, would often crave "water to drink of the well of 
Bethlehem which is by the gate." 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Settlement Founded and Named. 
1741. 

After one step had been taken towards the occupation of the Allen 
Tract, in felling the first tree just before Christmas, no further advance 
was made for more than a month. The snow lay deep in the forest 
and the storms of a rigorous winter beat fiercely about the little log 
houses in which the pioneers waited during January, 1741, for the 
return of Bishop Nitschmann from New York. Meanwhile the daily 
presence of Indians kept the chief object of their coming to America 
in their thoughts, and those weeks were not passed in merely 
hibernating. While Christian Henry Ranch, their heroic brother in 
service, wintering in his lonely hut far of? among the pines of Sheko- 
meko, was trying to reach the hearts of the wild Mohicans, these 
Brethren in the Nazareth woods made the first Moravian missionary 
efforts among the Delawares ; notwithstanding the suspicious and 
sulky mood of this little band, doggedly clinging to Welagameka as 
their own, defying legal ejectment and looking upon every white man 
north of the Lehigh as an intruder. The most active in these first 
missionary attempts in the Forks was Christian Froelich, who had 
arrived in December. Having lived for a season in London, he had 
learned the English language, and as some of the Indians also spoke 
English, he could communicate with them directly. He succeeded so 
far in winning good will that the chief. Captain John, entrusted his ten 
year old son to him — "a clever lad," wrote Froehlich in his narrative 
— with the intention that the child should be his permanent ward if 
the council of the village gave its approval. The zealous missionary 
was also invited to one of their religious festivals at Welagameka, and 
at the close of the chants and ceremonies obtained permission "to also 
pray in his manner." He knelt among them and poured out his soul 
in fervent intercessions and then spoke to them of Christ the Saviour, 

59 



6o 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 




THE FIRST HOUSE OF BETHLEHEM, I74I. 



174' 1742. 6i 

to all of which they gave reverent attention. These experimental 
efforts were persevered in as opportunity was found until the Indians 
finally left the place. Froehlich also took occasion to urge the 
realities of Christian faith upon Nathanael Irish, and the pious lay- 
man was permitted, as he afterwards wrote, to witness the softening 
of this man's heart which theological strife had hardened. 

Bishop Nitschmann returned at the beginning of February. Various 
reasons led to a further consideration of inducements to settle else- 
where, and there was again temporary uncertainty. Other places in 
view were Skippack, Oley, Conestoga Manor and the so-called 
London lands in Lancaster County, even as far west as the banks 
of the Susquehanna, besides other points in the Forks of the Del- 
aware. Finally it was concluded to let the lot instead of their own 
judgment decide the question, and the result was in favor of closing 
with Mr. Irish for the five-hundred acre tract on the Lehigh. 

Then, on February 4, a number of them began to fell timber for a 
large house, and the erection of a small one at the spot selected in 
December was proceeded with as rapidly as possible, while the snow 
yet covered the ground to the depth of two feet. Father Nitschmann 
took the lead in this arduous toil and his biographer states that none 
could easily keep pace with him. 

After the work was properly started Bishop Nitschmann again 
visited Henry Antes to consult about the consummation of the land- 
purchase; Mr. Antes having offered to render all assistance in his 
power. As there was neither a legal corporation nor, as yet, a 
naturalized citizen of the Province among the Brethren, it was 
arranged that Antes should make the purchase for them ; and accord- 
ingly on April 2, 1741, William Allen and wife deeded to him this 
first real estate acquired by the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania. 
This new ownership of the tract of land on which more has transpired 
of historic interest than at any place in Northampton County, was the 
fourth in succession after that of the original Proprietor of the 
Province — strictly speaking, only the second, for, as part of a grant 
of five thousand acres passing from William Penn to John Lowther 
and wife, of London, and from Lowther to Joseph Turner, of London, 
it remained an unlocated claim until William Allen, who purchased 
it of Turner in 1731, had it located and surveyed with other portions 
in the Forks of the Delaware in 1736, the year before the famous walk 
brought it within the limits thereafter held to have been surrendered 
by the Indians. 



62 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

Early in March — the published biography of Anton Seiffert gives 
May 9, which doubtless should be March 9, as the date — the workmen 
finished laying up the square-hewn logs of the first house. It was 
twenty by forty feet in dimensions, one story high, with sleeping- 
quarters for a number of persons in the attic under the steep-pitched 
roof. The building was divided by a log partition into a larger and a 
smaller section, the latter used to house the first cattle owned by the 
settlement. Such a combination of dwelHng and stable under one 
roof, as a first make-shift, was not an unfamiliar thing to these settlers, 
for many an old cottage in the villages of their native land was so ar- 
ranged. Their common dwelling in the larger section served also as 
their place of worship for one year.^ 

As soon as it was so far enclosed as to afford sufficient shelter for 
hardy men willing to make the best of the rudest accommodations, 
some took up their abode in it to save the time which had been con- 
sumed each day in going to and fro, even the little distance across to 
the home of their friend Isaac Martens Ysselstein on the south side 
of the river, where the pioneers had passed a night on their way to 
the Nazareth manor the previous year, and where hospitable doors 
were at all times open to those who wished to remain over night 
nearer to their work than the house on Whitefield's land. The re- 
moval of the household to the new quarters took place gradually when 
the severe winter had come to an end. 

After the opening of spring the little colony again came more into 
contact with the outside world. Frequent journeys — usually afoot — 
were made by one and another down through the Long Swamp where 
dwelt Joseph Mueller and other pious acquaintances ; to Skippack 
where the first Moravians in Pennsylvania had their temporary home 
with Christopher Wiegner ; to Fredericktown in Falkner's Swamp, the 



I A memorial-stone, placed in 1892, marks the site of this first house of Bethlehem, at the 
rear of the Eagle Hotel, on what is now " Rubel's Alley," but was previously called for 
some years simply "the old alley " — the first thoroughfare of the neighborhood and prob- 
ably identical with the old " Indian path." This quaint and historic domicile, which the 
people of Bethlehem should have been interested in preserving, was torn down in 1S23 by 
a generation more utilitarian than sentimental, to make room for stabling when, in the march 
of improvement, the second village store was converted into the second hotel of the place, 
" der Gasthof zum goUenen Adler," now less euphoniously called the Eagle Hotel.' The 
numerous pictures of the house which are extant — some meritorious as to execution and 
many not — are evolved from one or the other of two pencil sketches made while it was yet 
standing ; one used for the well-known painting by Gustavus Grunewald, the other made 
and then reproduced in ink by the Rev. C. F. Seidel. 



I74I 1742. 63 

home of Henry Antes, their most valued friend and counselor ; to 
Germantown, where intercourse was maintained with those of the 
former Georgia colony who had located there, and many new friend- 
ships were formed; to Philadelphia, where men like John Stephen 
Benezet continued to be warmly interested in their designs and move- 
ments, where friend and foe were daily discussing them, the newest 
objects of attraction in the Province in the midst of the contagious 
religious excitement awakened by Whitefield, where indispensable 
commodities only to be had in the metropolis were purchased for their 
establishment and letters from Europe were eagerly awaited. 

The two young women, Anna Nitschmann and Johanna Molther, 
who had arrived in December, ventured forth at the beginning of April 
with an escort, on their first tour among the settlements in pursuance 
of the object which had brought them across the ocean, becoming 
acquainted with families of various sects and preparing the way for 
that extensive itinerant work in the homes, and particularly among 
the children of all classes, in which later so many consecrated women 
engaged. Bishop Nitschmann was a very busy man at this time, con- 
tinually traveling up and down the country on both spiritual and ex- 
ternal business, and during his brief intervals of sojourn at the new 
settlement, joining his brethren in hard manual labor; having in his 
young days learned the carpenter's trade and maintained himself by 
means of it. 

Naturally also numerous visitors were attracted to the place, some 
moved by friendly interest, others by curiosity which was not friendly 
in all cases ; and the sensational reports spread abroad in reference 
to the nature and purpose of the undertaking were a striking evidence 
of the wrought-up popular mind of the time, continually agog for the 
next new thing to fall in with or attack, as the case might be, and 
ready to give currency to the most fantastic canards. Among the 
early spring callers were several representatives of the mystic fra- 
ternity of Sabbatarian Tunkers at Ephrata who had made a temporary 
convert of one of the Georgia colonists in 1739 — Gottfried Haberecht 
— who forsook them again, however, and rejoined his brethren in the 
Forks in September, 1741. Some of the other Moravians from 
Georgia who had settled at Germantown and elsewhere, also came to 
see the new place and most of the Skippack Brethren made friendly 
calls in the course of the spring and summer. 

Before the end of June the last of the pioneers had finally removed 



64 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

from the Barony of Nazareth to the Allen Tract.- The two log 
houses in which they had spent the winter were deserted and the 
foundation walls of the prospective stone-house left desolate, with the 
Indians of Welagameka once more in sole possession of the spot, at 
the very time when negotiations, of which these settlers knew nothing, 
were being concluded in England for the purchase of the Barony by 
representatives of the Moravian Church ; Whitefield having been left 
by the death of his loyal business manager, William Seward, in such 
financial embarrassment, that he was unable to proceed with his 
Nazareth plans or even to retain possession of the land. Announce- 
ment of the purchase of this property for £2500 on July 15 reached 
the Brethren in the Forks, September 15, when Bishop Nitschmann 
came from Philadelphia with letters from Europe. 

While elaborate plans for the Pennsylvania undertakings were 
maturing in Europe, the initial settlement in the Forks was a scene of 
stirring activity throughout the summer. The main tasks on which 
the strenuous efforts of the toilers were centered were the preparation 
of as much cleared land as possible for immediate cultivation, and the 
commencement of the large house for which they began on June 28 to 

2 The complete personnel of the settlement, including those who were itinerating much of 
the time, was the following : 

David Nitschmann, Bishop, 
Anton Seiffert, House Chaplain, David Nitschmann, Sr., Master Workman, 

Andrew Eschenbach, Itinerant Preacher, John Martin Mack, Assistant Foreman, 

George Neisser, Messenger, ' John Boehner, Carpenter, 

Christian Froehlich, General Helper, David Zeisberger, Carpenter, 

David Zeisberger, Jr., General Helper, Matthias Seybold, Farmer, 

Rosina Zeisberger, 

Anna Nitschmann, 

Johanna Sophia Molther, 

Johanna Hummel, 
The boys, Benjamin Sommers and James. 
In addition to the personals to be found in Chapter III, the following notes may have a 
place here, as some of the names will not be mentioned again. Besides the two David 
Nitschmanns and Froelich only two of these first settlers ended their days at Bethle- 
hem, viz.: the elder Zeisberger and his wife Rosina in 1744 and 1746 respectively. Their 
son David, the great missionary, the last survivor of these seventeen persons — leaving out 
account the two boys, of whose end nothing is known — died after sixty-three years of mis- 
sionary service, in 1808, at Goshen, in the Tuscarawas Valley, Ohio, in the SSth year of his 
age. Seiffert was recalled to Europe in 1745 and after serving the Church in England, Ire- 
land and Holland, died at Zeist, Holland, in 1785. Eschenbach left the Church in 1747 and 
settled on a farm at Oley, Pa., where he died in 1763. Neisser, who had been working in 
wood for Antes — mill and wagon work — under contract which expired in May, rejoined the 




DAVID NITSCHMANN, Sb 



I74I 1742. 65 

square the timber cut in the winter. No serious sickness, as in 
Georgia, disabled any of them to retard the urgent worlv which taxed 
their strength to the utmost, while their situation, like that of all 
such pioneers at the beginning, was one of scant comfort. But, unlike 
many others thus engaged, their daily life was not merely one of grim 
drudgery unrelieved by anything bright or softening. ''Circumstances 
outwardly the same are rendered widely dissimilar through difference 
in the spirit of the people. These settlers were plain folk, not reared 
amid the superior refinements of life, like some who followed them 
later, but from the first a choicer tone prevailed than would commonly 
be found with such plainness, which rude environment and the hard 
struggle for bare subsistence could not impair. They were imbued 
with a certain lofty ideality, imparted by the master-spirit of Herrnhut, 
which kept their high calling in their minds, preserved their sense of 
the finer social amenities from becoming blunt through contact with 
rough conditions, qualified and disposed them to find even some 
aesthetic enjoyment in the novelty of their situation and the natural 
attractions of their surroundings. The tmaffected bonhommie com- 
bined with innate dignity which distinguished a man like Father 
Nitschmann ; the gentle simplicity of David Zeisberger's mother — the 

Brethren in the Forks, June 28. He was a man of education, was the first school-master, 
diarist, and general scrivener, post-master and law-expounder of the settlement, a musician 
of ability, an enthusiastic specialist in Moravian history and biography, leaving manuscripts 
of value purchased of his widow in 1S07 for the archives of the Church, served in various 
pastorates, last in Philadelphia, where he died in 1784. When the Moravian grave-yard at 
Franklin and Vine Streets in that city became a building-site and the work of exhumation 
took place in 1886, the few bones remaining in his grave were brought to Bethlehem and 
interred in the old cemetery. The George Neisser school-house in Bethlehem was named 
in his memory in 1893. Many details of early Moravian annals in Pennsylvania from 
1734 are 011 record only in his historical notes. Mack, one of the leading missionaries 
among the Indians, 1742 to 1761, became Superintendent of Missions in the Danish West 
Indies in 1762, was consecrated bishop for that field in 1770, while visiting in Bethlehem — 
the first Moravian bishop, and indeed the first bishop of the Christian Church consecrated in 
America — and died on the Island of St. Croix in 1784. Boehner, who entered missionary 
service in the West Indies in 1742 (Note 7, Chapter III), devoted the rest of his life to 
that work and died on the Island of St. Thomas in T785. Seybold, after marrying in Penn- 
sylvania, returned to Europe in 1742, and died at Herrnhut in 1787. Of Bishop Nitsch- 
mann and the missionary Zeisberger, so much information in print is easily available that 
special personal notice, in addition to what will further appear in the regul ar text of these 
pages, seems unnecessary. The same may be said of Spangenberg, Boehler and Antes. 
The Moravian archives at Bethlehem contain portraits of the following among these first 
settlers: The Nitschmanns, the missionary Zeisberger, Mack (and wife), Neisser (and wife), 
also of Spangenberg and Boehler when vet young men, and their wives. 
6 



66 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

one matron of the company — were qualities which influenced their fel- 
lowship and were discerned by those who approached them. The 
intense piety cherished among them was not of that austere type 
which depressed or chilled those who came into contact with them. 
Their visitors not merely met the common readiness of people in 
newly-settled or sparsely populated regions to share their bread 
and shelter with any chance comer, whether acquaintance or 
stranger, but came into a genial atmosphere which suggested that 
genuine religion does not render persons stififly sanctimonious or 
coldly reserved. Their cordial hospitahty was inspired by a desire to 
cultivate confidence with men of all classes, creeds and persuasions. 
Even those callers who had to be met with caution were treated kindly 
to disarm prejudice. Heavy drains were made on their meagerly 
endowed commissariat by the numerous visitors, but the absence of 
grain-store, dairy and orchard was compensated for by the abundance 
of game in the surrounding woods and of fish in the waters of the 
Lehigh and the Monocacy to which the brief records of that summer 
refer, and they had enough to set before all who came. Morning, 
noon and night, when they joined in morning and evening prayer or 
combined religious devotions with their common meals — particularly 
when they made these meals special lovefeasts,^ usually on Saturday, 

3 Moravian lovefeasts, which will be mentioned occasionally, may be here explained for 
readers who lack information on the subject. They originated impromptu at Hernihut in 
1727, and were then fostered after the well-known manner of the early Christians, whose 
lovefeasts or " agapae" — from a Greek word for love or " charity "-— referred to in the 
epistle of Jude, verse 12, and more fully in the writings of some ancient Christian Fathers, 
expressed intimate fellowship on an ideal level ; all classes, patrician and plebeian, learned 
and illiterate, rich and poor, even master and slave, taking meals together from a common 
store, with singing of " psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," besides other manner of 
devotion and converse, recalling the last supper of Jesus with His disciples, and usually, 
as it seems, concluding with the Holy Communion. The first trace of the custom appears 
in Acts 2 : 42-46. Perversion of their purpose and degradation of their character among 
converts not weaned from heathen practices (I Cor. Ii), caused the lovefeasts in a later 
century to be disassociated from Divine service, excluded from the sanctuaries, and finally 
abandoned. For some decades after the introduction of this primitive Christian usage among 
Moravians, the term lovefeast was somewhat freely applied to a wide range of occasions 
and observances with which a light collation or an elaborate meal or a mere ceremonial 
bread breaking without intention of actual bodily nourishment, was combined — informal 
gatherings of a few in a social way, fraternal welcomes or farewells to guests, wedding or 
funeral repasts, treats for the children, official conferences on spiritual or external matters, 
consultations with groups of persons engaged in any branch of activity, harvest-home feasts, 
commemorative occasions, repasts furnished by individuals to friends, official associates, 
fellow- workmen, etc. — all of these occasions being given more or less of a religious charac. 



I74I 1742. 6/ 

which day they generally devoted in part to bodily rest with religious 
and social cheer, in addition to the observance of the Lord's Day 
— they delighted to sing together the time-honored hymns of their 
forefathers and favorite verses from the rich song-treasures of Ger- 
many. The latter were more familiar to those of them who did not 
hail from Moravia, and to many a devout guest who joined with 
them on such occasions. 

In July they were visited by the missionary, Christian Henry Rauch, 
who remained — making several calls meanwhile at other places — until 
August 9, when Bishop Nitschmann accompanied him to Shekomeko 
to inspect the mission, returning to the Forks, September 10. During 
Ranch's sojourn, the Holy Communion was celebrated the first time 
at the settlement on Saturday, July 8, and the next day he preached 
the first public sermon, taking as his text i Peter 1 : 18, 19. After 
that the sacrament was administered monthly, usually on Saturday. 
Furthermore, on July 22 they engaged the first time in an observance 
in vogue at Herrnhut since 1728, called in German Gemeintag,^ and 

ter, besides the lovefeasts of a strictly religious nature, regular church festivals, anniversary 
meetings of the organized divisions of a congregation ("choirs") or solemn services of 
preparatory covenanting and fellowship (communion lovefeasts) preceding the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper. Gradually the use of the term was limited to the more purely religious 
occasions, and the lovefeasts, held in more ceremonious and uniform fashion, became a dis- 
tinct feature of the established liturgical order. With this the thought of partaking of food 
to satisfy hunger was eliminated and the symbolical significance of breaking bread together 
came to be emphasized as the only object of the act. At the present time, where the custom 
is yet retained and most understandingly observed, this feature is a mere incident of a service 
which would, even without it, have character as a choral service or an occasion of fellow- 
ship. The nature or the quantity of the materials used is of no significance, and varies 
with local usage. Many modem Moravian churches have never introduced lovefeasts, and 
some old ones have abandoned them where they could not be maintained with decorum and 
dignity or in an appreciative spirit. 

4 This term, applied by Zinzendorf to what was originally called the day of thanksgiving 
and prayer, has the general meaning of a popular diet, or common assembly or mass-meet- 
ing. It was instituted. February 10, 172S, and had variously the character of a concert of 
prayer, an open church-conference, a missionary survey and general intelligence day ; the 
most conspicuous feature of the occasion being generally the communication of the latest 
accounts from the churches and missions in all parts, even outside of Moravian ffields in 
Christendom at large. Ordinations, marriage of missionaries, and other church-rites were 
often combined with these occasions. At the height of their popularity such assemblies 
were usually impressive and inspiring. To this custom of former times is due the accumu- 
lation of much of the manuscript matter in the shape of diaries, reports and letters from so 
many churches and missions preserved in the archives of old Moravian centf rs and now so 
valuable as sources of history. The time given to duplicating such matter for use at 
different places was profitably spent, for these occasions did much to keep the widely- 
scattered Brethren in sympathetic touch and intelligently interested in the common work in 
all lands. 



68 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in English usually, for want of an adequate equivalent, simply Prayer 
Day — for many years an important and popular occasion in Moravian 
congregations in Europe and America, commonly held once a month 
and as a rule on Saturday. Such days of converse in spirit with fellow- 
workers in many regions, when, each month, the latest reports and 
letters from abroad were read, quickened their consciousness of con- 
nection between the rough and severe manual labor, to which their 
time had mainly to be given, and the exalted ideals of missionary 
service set up as standards in the first enthusiasm and then maintained 
through continual correspondence between the laborers in all fields. 
Thus, with many pleasant experiences easing the trials and hardships 
of their situation, the summer passed. 

On September 23 they thankfully completed the sowing of their 
first winter grain and, September 27, the excavation of the cellar was 
finished, where heaps of stone from the quarry they had opened, and 
scores of hewn white oak logs lay ready to commence the substantial 
building which, during the first years of the settlement, was to serve 
as home and hospice, manse and church, administration office, 
academy, dispensary and town-hall ; the loved resting-place of many 
weary pilgrims ; the busiest center to be found far and wide ; sought 
out by the inquisitive and expatiated on by many a gossip with won- 
derful stories to tell about the Moravians — "The House on the 
Lehigh." It received the name Gcmeinhaus^ in the German nomen- 

5 Such a building for a combination of uses, and so named, as headquarters of the G^meine 
(community or parish) was formerly the main structure of a Moravian settlement or station, 
as was the Sbor or Dum (church-house) of earlier times in Bohemia and Moravia. The 
word " congregation " coming into use as English for Gemeine — correct of a worshiping 
assembly, but less correctly applied to the settlement, community, parish or corporation — 
the rather ill-sounding and, for persons unaccustomed to this traditional misuse of the 
words, meaningless term " Congregation-House " gained currency as rendering of Gcmein. 
haus. Better, although lacking some associations of the German word, is Parish House, or 
for the Bethlehem Gemeinhmis, when later for a long time exclusively the quarters of the 
local ministry and of missionaries coming and going — Clergy House, both being terms of 
understood meaning and authorized by good usage. Considering the real sense of Gemeine 
as applied to the organized community, and the more ample and varied uses of the Gemein- 
haus from the beginning than are commonly associated with Parish House or Clergy House, 
the term Community House is chosen a,s a more suitable and adequate rendering of the 
German. This antique structure standing at the corner of Church and Cedar Streets, with 
its massive logs hidden under its modern dress of painted weather-boarding — now the oldest 
house in Bethlehem — was originally 45 by 30 feet in dimensions, the same height a« at 
present, with its roof ridge truncated at the gables. Its east end was at the present eastern 
doorway. It was enlarged in 1743. Possibly it may some time be restored to uses in 
keeping with its historic character. 



1741 1742- 69 

clature of the time and in these pages will be called the Community 
House. 

On Thursday, September 28, the first foundation-stone was laid, at 
the south-east corner, and consecrated with fervent prayer by Bishop 
Nitschmann and Andrew Eschenbach. A document engrossed on 
parchment by George Neisser, containing the names of fifteen per- 
sons" present at the ceremony, was deposited in a pewter box and 
cemented into a cavity in the stone. 

Special significance was attached to the Scripture watch-word of the 
Church for that day in its collection of daily texts^ — "This is the place 
of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell 
in the midst of the children of Israel forever." — Ezek. 43 :']. 

The spirit which animated them when they proceeded to lay up the 
foundation walls of this house was very different from that in which a 
few of them had toiled at the trying task on the Nazareth land, the 
previous autumn. This building was their own, the beginning was 
auspicious and letters from Europe informing them of accessions to 
their number to be expected soon, of Count Zinzendorf's preparations 
to come to Pennsylvania in the winter and of the considerable colony 
to be sent over a few months later, stimulated their exertions. 

On October 26 they had the pleasure of welcoming the first three 
men whose coming was awaited: Gottlob Buettner, John Christopher 



S The list, in the order given by Neisser, is the following: David Nitschmann, episc, 
Anton Seiffert, elder, Andrew Eschenbach, preacher, David Nitschmann, Sr., David Zeis- 
berger, Rosina Zeisberger (Neisser writes "Anna" — perhaps her name was Anna Rosina. 
She is confused by some writers with Anna, wife of George Zeisberger, who came to Penn- 
sylvania later), David Zeisberger, Jr., Matthias Seybold, John Boehner, George Neisser, 
Augustine Neisser, Christian Froehlich, Martin Mack, Gottlieb Demuth, Johanna Hummel. 
Ten, viz. the Nitschmanns, Zeisbergers, Neissers, Seiffert, Boehner, Demuth, were from 
Moravia and adjacent parts of Bohemia. Neisser's list gives the region from which each 
hailed. Augustine Neisser was merely a visitor. Demuth was working at the settlement 
nearly all summer. 

7 May 3, 1728, the custom began at Herrnhut of giving the people a Scripture text as a 
vifatch-word for each day {Losuiig). In 1731 the issue of a collection for the entire year 
began. Eventually there were two texts for each day, a watch- word drawn from an assort- 
ment of Old Testament texts, and a doctrinal text [LehrUxt) selected from the New Testa- 
ment, each accompanied by a versicle from the hymn-book. The custom has continued 
uninterruptedly to the present time, when more than 120,000 copies are annually published 
in seven languages. This little manual, familiarly styled " The Text-Book " and "Das 
Lostingsbuch" is widely used outside the Moravian Church. 



"JO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pyrlaeus and John William Zander,* who sailed from England as 
the first missionaries sent to America through the help of the Society 
for the Furtherance of the Gospel, founded in London by Spangen- 
berg. The arrival of these men assured the pioneers that the plans 
of which letters from Europe had informed them from time to time, 
were progressing, and that their loyalty to the cause amid all dis- 
couragements was not in vain, as some of the Georgia colonists who 
had forsaken them declared. 

There is little on record, in addition to these leading features, to fill 
out the dim picture of daily life at the settlement during that summer 
and fall of 1741 — a picture which it would be interesting to scrutinize 
more closely. Besides the people of the place, numerous figures flit 
casually across the scene which appear also in the sketches of other 
settlements and organizations of that time ; for there was a continual 
coming and going of persons whose names are more or less prominent 
in the history of different neighborhoods from the frontier down to 
the sea-board, or associated with the particulars of social, industrial 
and religious life in Philadelphia and Germantown in those days. 
Some of the restless and inconstant religionists who then abounded 
in Pennsylvania, ever ready to turn from one persuasion to another as 
fitful impulse or capricious fancy prompted, were also among those 
who came to see and hear. Occasionally flighty or erratic characters 
drifted to the spot to air eccentric notions, or challenge debate on 

8 These three young men — all under thirty years of age — who had lately joined the 
Brethren's Church and become candidates for missionary service, were the first additions to 
the Pennsylvania nucleus since December, 1740, increasing to 34 the number now in the 
North American colonies who had been connected with the Church in Europe, of whom 32 
were in Pennsylvania — Rauch being at Shekomeko, N.Y., and Hagen yet in Georgia. (See 
Chapter III, note 15.) These new missionaries were ordained and married in Pennsylvania 
in 1742. Buettner's wife was Margaret, daughter of John Bechtel of Germantown. Her 
second husband was the missionary John George Jungmann. Pyrlaeus married Susan 
Benezet, daughter of John Stephen Benezet of Philadelphia. Zander married Johanna 
Magdalena Miller, daughter of Peter Miller of Germantown. The brave and gentle 
Buettner died in 1745 at Shekomeko, after three years of missionary labor, in his twenty- 
ninth year. His grave near Pine Plains, Duchess County, N.Y., is marked by a monument 
erected in 1859. Pyrlaeus, the best known of the three, as missionary, schoolman and 
musician, was a theological candidate from the University of Leipsic. He is chiefly noted 
as a student and teacher of Indian language, particularly the Mohawk and Mohican dialects, 
and left some linguistic work of interest in manuscript, which is preserved in the Moravian 
archives at Bethlehem. He returned to Europe in 1751, served the Church in England 
until 1770, then went back to Germany and died at Herrnhut in 17S5. Zander went as a 
missionary to Berbice, Guiana, South America, in 1742, returned to Europe in 1 761, and 
labored in Holland until his decease in 1782 at the Moravian settlement, Zeist. 



I74I 1742. 71 

some hobby; others to seek kinship in some particular fanaticism, or 
congenial rest for a troubled soul. 

Thus, among others, a demented, although harmless Englishman, 
Thomas Hardie, who for more than a year occasioned much difficulty 
to the pioneers who tried to restrain and guard him during seasons of 
frenzy, wandered to the Forks from Ephrata. The famous Chronkon 
Ephratense, describing his career, archly associates his dementia with 
his turning to the Moravians, and closes the account of his wanderings 
and his end with the pious wish, expressed in its obituaries of various 
other individuals, that God might give him a blessed resurrection. 

Henry Antes visited the settlement several times in the course of 
the summer to lend aid and counsel in the work and to consult about 
plans for an alliance of like-minded people of different religious 
connections, on a larger scale than that of the Skippack Association, 
for the improvement of the general religious and moral condition — a 
scheme in reference to which he had apparently been in correspond- 
ence with Spangenberg, who was in England, and which he hoped to 
see successfully inaugurated under Zinzendorf's leadership. 

A slight change in the personnel of the place also occurred during 
autumn. Christian Froehlich undertook temporarily the manage- 
ment of the sugar-refinery of Captain Wallace in Philadelphia — he had 
become skilled in this work in England — and was of service there to 
his Brethren, in circulating correct information about them and their 
purposes, and acting as a city agent in a variety of matters. George 
Neisser left the Forks in November and joined his brother Augustine 
at Germantown, where he passed through a serious illness. He did 
not return to the settlement until the following June. His absence 
accounts for the very meager records of the period from November 
to June.® 

9 Neisser's brief notes, the main source of information on numerous details of the year 
1 741, contain a variety of minor items in addition to those which have been worked into 
the text, and although comparatively unimportant, they help to fill out the lines of the sketch, 
besides revealing somewhat of the person and employments of this interesting first Mora- 
vian chronicler in Pennsylvania. Thus on May 18 he mentions the receipt of a copy of 
Benzelius's Greek Testament from his brother and later records his pleasure in reading from 
the Acts and Epistles in the solitude of the woods on Sunday. Early in June he rigs up a 
wagon for conveyance between the home of Antes and the Forks, and works at carts for 
Frederick Antes and Valentine Geiger. In the latter part of July, while on one of his 
journeys, he attends a Tunker meeting at Henry Jacobi's in the Long Swamp. He notes 
that on August 2 they broke flax, and from him it is learned that turnips were the first crop 
raised from the new soil of the Allen Tract. They sowed turnip seed on August 4. On 



72 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Early in December a flutter of glad expectation was occasioned at 
the Forks by the announcement that Count Zinzendorf had arrived 
in America. He reached New York, November 30, on the ship Lon- 
don, Captain William Bryant, from England, accompanied by his 
daughter Benigna, a maiden of sixteen years; Rosina Nitschmann, 
wife of Bishop David Nitschmann ; John Jacob Mueller, his secretary 
and artist; three new missionaries, Abraham and Judith Meinung, 
from the German membership of the Church, and David Bruce, a 
Scotchman, who had joined the Brethren in England ; and the printer 
John Henry Miller, who was merely a fellow-passenger.^" There was 
a stir in and about New York among people of widely different sen- 
Saturday, August 19, they finished a foot-bridge across the Monocacy and then had Gemein- 
tag. Sunday, August 20, was "Dies Amoena." The following week he made a plow for 
Nathanael Irish and one for the Brethren. August 28 a remarkable catch of rock-fish is 
recorded. September 3 he notes the autumnal flight southward of migratory pigeons with 
the line "Reditiis columbarum ad partes auslrales." On .September lo the splitting of rails 
began. On Sunday, October 29, stands in English the singular entry, " I was in critical 
circumstances with the Brethren." Did this, together with his brother's persuasions, of 
which there are indications, have something to do with his leaving for a season? Novem- 
ber 7 he departed for Germantown where his brother, who was living in the house of the 
clock-maker Theobald Endt, a separatist, removed to his own dwelling a few days later. 
There shortly after this he received a fraternal letter from Buettner and " a sharp letter " 
from Eschenbach, and at the beginning of December was taken sick. 

10 This interesting group increased to 42 the number of persons in the North American 
colonies who had been connected with the Brethren in Europe ; 40 of them being in Penn- 
sylvania at the close of the year. 

Zinzendorf's daughter, Henrietta Benigna Justina, was born at Berthelsdorf, .Saxony, 
December 23, 1725, became in 1746 the wife of Baron John de Watteville, theological 
alumnus of Jena, Moravian minister and, 1747, bishop — his original name was |ohn Michael 
Languth, the same as his father, a Lutheran clergyman, and he was adopted by ihe Count's 
intimate friend. Baron Frederick de Watteville, and by letters patent was endowed with his 
name, rank and title in 1745 — and with her husband came to Pennsylvania again in 1748 
and 1784. There will be further mention of her in these pages. 

Rosina Nitschmann was a daughter of Thomas Schindler and was born at Zauchtenthal, 
Moravia. Being among the early emigrants to Herrnhut, she was one of the seventeen 
young women of that settlement when it was first organized as a colony. She was married 
to David Nitschmann, November 12, 1726. She had two daughters who died in childhood 
and a son, Christian David, born July 18, 1731. Like her husband, she was a most devoted 
worker in a variety of ways both in Europe and America. The particular duties that fell 
to their lot in those heroic days compelled them to be absent one from another very much, 
and she made many long and perilous journeys unaccompanied by her husband. One such 
was a journey to Greenland in 1745 to escort two young women w^ho went as missionaries. 
Count Zinzendorf called her a Phoebe in the Church. She died of consumption August 10, 
•753. *nd was buried, August 12, in the old Herrnhaag graveyard where all traces of her 



I74I 1742. 73 

timents towards the Count when his arrival became known, for he had 
been extensively advertised in advance through both favorable and 
hostile public discussion of his expected visit. Some enthusiasts an- 
ticipated the advent of a new apostle to work spiritual wonders. Some, 
more sober-minded, .'who desired not only increased evangelistic efforts, 
but improved relations between adherents of different creeds, hoped 
at least for better things in both respects than had been. Many 
others were merely curious to see and hear this remarkable man, so 
much lauded and so much maligned; for it was a rare spectacle to 
see a nobleman of high rank, large fortune and honorable position 
at court, retire from the functions and connections of his station to 
engage in religious work and even take ecclesiastical orders. Yet 
more, influenced by those busy pulpiteers and pamphleteers who had 
been publishing the aspersions cast upon him by the manifesto of 
certain excited Amsterdam clerics, referred to in the preceding chap- 
ter, and other pasquinades yet more defamatory, and had been circu- 

grave, as of so many others, were eventually obliterated. She died at Marienborn. No 
biography was ever published. 

John Jacob Mueller, a portrait painter of Nuremberg, joined the Church in 1740. Besides 
serving as Zinzendorf's private secretary, he wrote the journals of important synods held in 
Pennsylvania in 1742 and took down from delivery a number of the Count's public dis- 
courses while in America, which were published and are in some respects among the more 
valuable of his printed sermons, as specimens of his preaching at its best in matter and 
form, adapted to a general audience and to the conditions of the time. Mueller returned 
with him to Europe in 1743, continued with his corps of personal associates many years, 
was ordained in 1760 and died at Niskey, Prussia, in 1781. 

The young missionaries. Meinung and Bruce came to America unordained and itinerated 
some time as lay-evangelists among the settlements, helping meanwhile in manual labor at 
Bethlehem. 

Meinung and wife went as missionaries to the Danish West Indies in 1746. He died on 
the Island of St. Thomas in 1749. His wife Judith, m.n. HoUeschke, from Moravia, widow 
of Melchior Kuntz, when married to Meinung, returned to Pennsylvania in 1751, to Europe 
in 17S3, and died at Herrnhut in 1790. Their son, Charles Lewis, went to North Carolina, 
1771, and died in 1817 at Salem, N. C. 

Bruce, from Edinburg, was the first native English-speaking missionary of the Moravian 
Church in America. In 1742 he married John Stephen Benezet's daughter Judith of Phila- 
delphia, subsequently the second wife of Doctor John Frederick Otto of Bethlehem. Bruce 
itinerated in different neighborhoods, was Elder of the temporary English organization at 
Nazareth in 1742, assisted in Philadelphia at intervals and was the first regularly appointed 
evangelist of the Church who labored in and about New York in 1742. He became mis- 
sionary to the Indians at Wechquadnach on the New York and Connecticut borders in 
February, 1749, and died there, July 9, 1749, greatly mourned by the converts who were 
warmly attached to him. A monument, jointly to his memory and that of Joseph Powell, 
sometime missionary in Jamaica, W. I., who died in 1774 while laboring as evangelist 



74 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

lating the story that the Moravians were Crypto-Papists and emis- 
saries of the French, were firmly persuaded that he was an adven- 
turer dangerous both to the Protestant faith and to the State, and 
ought to be officially proceeded against. This absurd agitation would 
appear almost amusing at a distance, were it not for the serious re- 
sults it finally effected in the actual persecution of Moravian mission- 
aries and the ruin of their flourishing work among the Indians in the 
Province of New York which will be noticed more particularly farther 
on. 

Zinzendorf remained in New York a few days, enjoying the hospi- 
tality of Thomas Noble, merchant ; became acquainted with the 
friends of Spangenberg and the other leaders who had been there 
before, and with many more people; reorganized the little society 
formed by Boehler at the beginning of the year, and then, on 
December 6, started for Pennsylvania. 

among white settlers of Duchess Co., N. Y., was erected in 1 859 over the remains of Bruce 
at Wechquadnach Lake ("Indian Pond") in the town of Sharon, in Litchfield Co., Conn. 

John Henry Miller was the later widely-known printer and newspaper publisher of Phila- 
delphia who had been attracted by the work of the Brethren in Europe and became a mem- 
ber of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem in 1742. Restless and fond of change, his lift 
was one of many wanderings prior to 1760, when he established his office in Philadelphia. 
He worked at his handicraft, which he had learned in the Brandmiiller office in Basle, in 
many European cities and between 1742 and 1760, during his several sojourns in America, 
in the offices of Franklin, Bradford, Saur, and other printers in Pennsylvania, besides putting 
into operation the first printing-press for the Church of his adoption in 1744 at Marien- 
born in the Wetterau in Germany. His first newspaper venture in America was in partner- 
ship with Samuel Holland at Lancaster, Pa., where they issued the first number of the bi- 
lingual (German-English) Lancastersche Zeitung on January 13, 1752, as Miller records in 
his private note-book ; but at the beginning of the following June he left Lancaster and 
severed his connection with that office. The first issue of his well-known Staatsbote appeared 
in Philadelphia, January l8, 1762. He published it, with minor variations of heading, until 
1779, when he retired from business. It was continued by his successors. It was the first 
newspaper printed in Philadelphia after July 4, 1776, announcing the events of tliat day. 
Being in sympathy with the Revolution, he had to flee the city when the British got posses- 
sion in 1777, and besides his heavy losses, suffered the chagrin of having his press come — 
under protection of the British Commandant — temporarily into the hands of his business- 
competitors and political antagonists, the younger Saurs, who were loyalists. 

The Staatsbote was, for a number of years, one of the several newspapers, German and 
English, regularly taken by the officials at Bethlehem, and from 1760 to 1779 most of the 
Bethlehem printing was done by Miller. In 1 7S0 he retired to Bethlehem where his wife 
had been living apart from him, in accordance with a singular agreement between them, and 
had died in 1779. He died in 1782 at the age of eighty years. A probably well-nigh com- 
plete list of his imprints appears in The First Century of German Printing in America^ 
1728-1830, the work of the late Prof. Oswald Seidensticker, published in 1893 by the- 
Pionier Verein of Philadelphia. 



I74I 1742. 75 

He did not proceed directly to the Forks of the Delaware, but 
turned his course first towards Philadelphia, where, after brief stops 
at several places on the way, he arrived on December lo. He was 
met there by Bishop Nitschmann, welcomed as a guest to the home 
of Mr. Benezet and then installed in the apartments of a neighbor- 
ing house on Second Street, near Race, which had been rented for 
his use when in Philadelphia by Christian Froehlich. In accordance 
with the etiquette which he held to be incumbent upon him, he form- 
ally announced his arrival to the Governor of Pennsylvania, who 
courteously replied to his note; and in order to forestall sinister re- 
ports which he knew would be carried to the Governor, he invited 
him to send representatives to attend his meetings and hear his dis- 
courses ; a precaution to which the executive of the Province agreed, 
while at the same time assuring him of the broad and generous tol- 
eration, in the matter of creed and church connection, extended by 
the laws of Pennsylvania. The sensation awakened by his coming, 
which had been eagerly awaited by so many persons of various 
stations, religions and dispositions, in Philadelphia and the sur- 
rounding region, was greater than at New York. While high 
expectations of religious benefit were cherished in some quar- 
ters, there was excited preparation for controversy in others. More 
than one veteran in theological warfare and sectarian strife got his 
arsenal in readiness, and there was even a temporary truce between 
some habitually contending parties in order to join forces, and com- 
bine their diversity of weapons against a new object of attack, with 
the added zest of novelty. A few days were passed in Philadelphia, 
forming acquaintances, consulting with men of different stations and 
connections, and interviewing Eschenbach and the young women, 
Anna Nitschmann and Johanna Molther, in reference to their tours 
through the country districts. 

On Monday evening, December i8, the Count went out to Ger- 
mantown, where he lodged with John Bechtel, the faithful licensed 
lay-preacher and pastor of some of the spiritually awakened German 
Reformed people of that place. When Zinzendorf first appeared in 
Philadelphia Bechtel had been almost deterred by the outcry of some 
from entering into cordial relations with the Count ; but, as a leading 
member of the Skippack Association, he shared the hope of Henry 
Antes that a solution of the religious problem of Pennsylvania 
might be advanced by an alliance of devout men of all persuasions 
in practical efforts for the common good, on the ground of some 



76 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

simple evangelical articles of agreement which would leave contro- 
verted points untouched and each party undisturbed in its views on 
such points. At Germantown Zinzendorf also met others of that 
little Association, besides several of the better sort of German Sepa- 
ratists whose manifest earnestness and strength of personality ren- 
dered them, with all their eccentricities and prejudices, men whom 
it would be desirable, if possible, to enlist in some kind of activity for 
the general welfare more profitable than mere criticism and protest 
over against every existing thing. 

The company that was to join him on his first journey into the 
country assembled at Germantown. On Tuesday morning they set 
out for Skippack. They spent the night at the house of Christopher 
Wiegner and on Wednesday proceeded to Falkner's Swamp and vis- 
ited Henry Antes. There the most important interview had by Zin- 
zendorf prior to the close of the year took place. No man to be 
found was more competent than Antes to give information about the 
general condition of the Germans of Pennsylvania, and about the 
numerous sects and parties that entered into the motley religious 
composition of the Province ; and no man was less likely to misrepre- 
sent any of them, for he was singularly free from prejudice and 
bigotry. He unfolded the plans he had been considering since his first 
discussion of the situation with Spangenberg in 1736, and his propo- 
sition that he would issue a circular letter, inviting the various per- 
suasions to send representatives to a general "conference of reli- 
gions," as a first step, was favorably regarded by Zinzendorf, who 
agreed to be present. 

Thursday morning, December 21, they started on the final stage 
of their journey to the Forks of the Delaware, taking the route to 
the mill of Nathanael Irish, which had become a familiar road to some 
of the party. It was a long, hard ride for those who were not used 
to such exertions, and the evening dusk of that shortest winter day 
had gathered when the cavalcade descended the last northern slope 
between the miller's stone-quarry and the Lehigh, and a cheering 
gleam from the cabin of the Ysselstein family near the river greeted 
them in the distance. They dismounted there and made a brief call 
at the home of these friendly Hollanders. Then torches were pro- 
vided, several members of the family led the way to the Indian ford, 
where the canoes were brought into requisition for some, while the 
horses were taken over by others, and, guided by the flickering lights 
thus improvised, they crossed the stream in the darkness. As they 



I74I 1742. 77 

followed the winding way up the ascent on the north side, another 
light glimmering through the trees soon welcomed the pilgrims to 
the little log house on the Allen tract — to them the most interesting 
and important spot in America — and they were at their journey's 
end. In the unfinished Community House two rooms in the second 
story at the western end had been hurriedly prepared, as well as 
could be, for the use of the Count, and perhaps for his daughter, and 
there he passed the first night at the Forks. There is no record of 
what took place on the following two days. It may be assumed that 
manual labor was for the most part suspended and that the time was 
devoted to social converse, spiritual edification and official confer- 
ence, for this first visit which Zinzendorf made to the new settlement 
was a very short one ; and undoubtedly Saturday was spent in the 
customary manner with interest heightened by his liturgical leader- 
ship, discourses and narratives. ^^ 

The first extant record after the mention of his arrival brings to 
view an interesting Christmas Eve scene. ^- They were assembled in 
the little log house at the close of Sunday, December 24 N. S.,^^ to 
observe the Vigils of Christmas on the same day on which their 
brethren in the far-off Fatherland were similarly engaged. Besides 

II See notes 3 and 4 to this chapter on Saturday lovefeast and Gemeintag. Zinzendorf 
was both musically and poetically gifted, was a good singer, a very animated and impressive 
speaker, and possessed a rare liturgical faculty which rendered such services as these 
peculiarly attractive. He had brought both the lovefeast and the Gemeintag into vogue and 
took delight in them to the end of his days. 

12 The number present and the names of all cannot be ascertained. There were more 
than is commonly supposed. Bishop Spangenberg, a reliable authority, in his Life of 
Zinzendorf, pp. 1373-74, intimates that all who came with the Count from Europe were 
there, and adds that sundry persons "who sought the fellowship of the Brethren and expected 
a blessing for their hearts had come from the country." These were probably from Skip- 
pack and Falkner's Swamp — perhaps Wiegner and Antes among them — and from the Long 
Swamp, men like Joseph Mueller and Abraham Dubois. All of the pioneers named in note 
2 of this chapter were undoubtedly present excepting Neisser, recovering from sickness at 
Germantown, and Froehlich yet in Philadelphia. Buettner, Pyrlaeus, Zander (note 8), 
Eschenbach and Haberecht were probably there. Ranch evidently was not. 

'3 Not according to the antiquated calendar then yet retained in England, eleven days be- 
hind the time. Says one, " VVir feierten von Anfangdie Christnackt' s Vigilien nach Stilo Novo 
in Gemeinschaft init unsern Brudern in Europa." This was subsequently adduced by 
certain vigilant patriots of a neighboring settlement as one of the evidences that the Mora- 
vians were secretly Papists in league with the French against the government, for was not 
the correction of the calendar promulgated by a Pope in 1582, and was not the government 
yet using the old style time ? It was a clear case. 



^8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Other services of the day, they celebrated the Holy Communion, as 
befitted a Sunday so significant for all who participated. Then, with 
the Christmas theme uppermost, their devotions were protracted until 
after nine o'clock. It was a novel and unique occasion which awak- 
ened peculiar emotions. Their humble sanctuary, with beasts of the 
stall sharing its roof, brought the circumstances of the Saviour's 
birth vividly before their imagination. With the forest about them, 
stretching away to where heathen multitudes lived in ignorance of 
Immanuel, the relation between the subject of that holy night and 
their purpose towards those dwellers in the forest possessed their 
minds. It stirred the quick fancy of the Count, always keenly respon- 
sive to such impressions. Acting upon an impulse, he rose and led 
the way into the part of the building in which the cattle were kept, 
while he began to sing the quaintly pretty words of a German 
Epiphany hymn^* which combined Christmas thoughts and missionary 

14 A hymn by Adam Drese (d. 1718, aged 88 years), musical director at Weimar and 
Arnstadt, who also composed the tunes to his hymns. This hymn of nine verses stands as 
No. 937 in the original Herrnhut hymnal of 1735 under the heading " Heidenfesl," i e. 
Epiphany. In the edition of 1 741, in which the tunes are also numbered, the hymn is 940 
and the tune 52. In the Offices of Worship and Hymns, published in 1S91 at Bethlehem, 
hymn 511 is a free translation by S. C. Chitty, of six stanzas corresponding, as they there 
follow, to 1,2, 3, 8, 9, 7 of the original. Martin Mack mentions the lines " AHcht Jerusalem, 
sondern Bethlehefn" of verse 2, and ^'Aus dir kotiimet was mirfrommet" of verse 3, as the 
particular words treasured in memory in connection with the naming of the settlement. This 
old hvmn associated in so interesting a way with the early history of Bethlehem, but so little 
known beyond these oft-quoted four lines, deserves insertion in part in this volume. The 
first five stanzas, its most characteristic portion, here follow, with an English rendering in 
the same measure which the writer has tried to make as literal as possible, while 
preserving their original structure. * 

Jesu rufe mich Jesus call Thou me 

Von der Welt, dass ich From the world to flee, 

Zu dir eile, To Thee hasting ; 

Nicht verweile ; Withoiit resting ; 

Jesu rufe mich. Jesus call Thou me. 

Nicht Jerusalem, Not Jerusalem, 

Sondern Bethlehem Rather Bethlehem 

Hat bescheret Gave us that which 

Was uns naehret ; Maketh life rich ; 

Nicht Jerusalem. Not Jerusalem. 

Werthes Bethlehem, Honored Bethlehem, 

Du bist angenehm : Pleasant I esteem : 

Aus dir kommet From thee springeth 

Was mir frommet, What gain bringeth ; 

Werthes Bethlehem. Honored Bethlehem. 

Du bist, wie man spricht, Thou no more of right 

Nun die kleinste nicht ; Art called least in might ; 

Allen Leuten, Unto all men, 

Auch den Heiden Yea the heathen, 

Bringst du Heil und Licht. Brings't thou he.alth and light. 

Zeige mir den Stern Point me out the star 

Der mich, aus der Fern, Which my course, afar, 

Von den Heiden Guides Irom p.igan 

Lehr abscheiden ; ' Ways forsaken ; 

Zeige mir den Stem. Point me out the star. 



I74I 1742. 79 

thoughts, as suggested by the homage of heathen sages before the 
infant Jesus, and made conspicuous in the character given the ob- 
servance of Epiphany among the Brethren in those days of first mis- 
sionary zeal. Its language expressed well the feeling of that hour, 
and the place in which it was sung made the vision of the manger 
seem very real. The little town of Bethlehem was hailed, its boon 
to mankind was lauded, the star that guided the magi to the spot 
and the light of the gentiles there beaming forth were sought, humble 
supplication at the Redeemer's feet was uttered in successive stanzas, 
and then the song ended. One who was present wrote long after- 
ward: "The impression I there received is yet fresh in my memory, 
and will remain until my end."^° 

With this episode a thought came to one and another which gave 
rise to a perpetual memorial of the occasion, signalizing it as pecu- 
liarly historic and enhancing its romantic interest. No name had 
yet been given to the settlement. That vigil service and that hymn 
suggested one. By general consent the name of the ancient town of 
David was adopted and the place was called Bethlehem.^" 

15 Autobiography of Martin Macli, which describes this incident more fully than other 
original references to it. Spangenberg also alludes, in his Life of Zinzendorf, to the extra- 
ordinary feeling awakened, as described by sundry participants with whom he had con- 
versed about it. Some features of this occasion and of occurrences preceding it are derived 
from other autobiographies and subsequent allusions in diaries and journals. 

16 The name Bethlehem was officially used already in the proceedings of the "Conferences 
of Religions" in January, 1742. It is found in several of Neisser's notes of occurrences in 
1741, but the existing copy of these notes was written later, when he used the name ex pos. 

facto, so that this does not, as might seem, lend support to another alleged origin of the 
name, antedating Christmas, 1 741, as some have supposed, which was set forth later, as, e.g- 
in the first records of the Single Brethren's House, 1748. It associates the term " house on 
the Lehigh," applied occasionally at first to the Community House, with the Hebrew, 
"house of bread," — Beth-Lechem, i.e. Bethlehem, and out of Beth, i.e. house, and Lechetn, 
so similar to Lecha, i.e. Lehigh — see Chapter III, note g — forms a Hebrew-Indian com- 
pound, Bethlehem. This was then given an additional significance in that the house on the 
Lehigh, headquarters of the settlement, was a material and spiritual house of bread for so 
many. Certain lists of the inhabitants compiled in the years 1746-49, and yet preserved in 
the archives of the Moravian Church, have the heading " The House Bethlehem " and this 
has been taken by some as pointing to such a prior designation of the Community House. 
But in those catalogues the word house is to be taken in the sense of household, as 
applying to the people and not to a building. The writer, after a thorough examination, 
finds no ground for regarding this other explanation of the origin of the name as anything 
more than a fanciful after-thought, playing with words in a manner characteristic of the 
time when it was the fashion for many to imitate Zinzendorf's excessive use of polyglot and 
fondness for all kinds of paronomasia in documents, addresses and rythmical effusions- he 
moreover having been strongly persuaded of the Hebrew ancestry of the Indian tribes. 
The clear testimony of Mack, Neisser, Spangenberg and Beehler that the name originated 
simply as described in the text, should be conclusive. 



CHAPTER V. 



Connecting Events and the Sea Congregation. 
1742. 

For the space of six months after that memorable Christmas of 
1741, the records tell nothing about what took place in the Forks of 
the Delaware, but much about the movements and projects of Zin- 
zendorf and his associates elsewhere in Pennsylvania. These are 
so intimately related to the history of Bethlehem and lie at the root 
of so much that appears upon the scene later, that some of their 
details and results must be noted. 

On Christmas Day the Count started with his daughter and some 
other persons on a rapid tour through the Oley and Conestoga neigh- 
borhoods. He preached his first sermon in Pennsylvania that even- 
ing at the house of Jean Bertolet, a French Huguenot of Oley, who 
had been a member of the Skippack union. He intended to visit 
the Ephrata community, but changed his mind and merely paused 
at the place, without seeing Conrad Beissel, the Superintendent ; but 
he seems to have spoken with members of the Zionitic Brotherhood 
connected with the settlement. Ephrata was at that time a more 
influential establishment than is commonly supposed, and, with all its 
oddities, this influence was not morally harmful, but good. The 
• habitat of the eccentric "New Mooners" also lay in his path, and his 
attention was naturally drawn to this new religious freak, thought 
to have originated in earlier Jewish influences in the neighborhood. 
He also encountered representatives of the less picturesque but far 
more noxious fanatics of Oley, called the "New Born," whose dan- 
gerous tenets had been combated already by Spangenberg six years 
before. He furthermore came into contact with leaders of the regu- 
lar Tunkers, from whom the Ephrata fraternity had sprung, with 
Mennonite Brethren of both branches, and with many Lutheran and 
Reformed families. The almost complete destitution of Christian 
ministrations, worthy of the name, which he found among these latter, 
awakened his profound solicitude. 

So 



1742. 8 1 

He got back to Germantown, December 30, and on the last day of 
the year, preached the first of a series of sermons in the German 
Reformed Church of that place, in which John Bechtel had been 
ministering. This was his first appearance in a public house of wor- 
ship in America. He took up his residence again in his rented house 
in Philadelphia, having decided to live there the first three months 
and then to locate the same length of time in Germantown. He now 
had regular daily services at his house. Those on Sunday and Wed- 
nesday evenings were open to any who wished to attend, and other 
men from his corps of assistants took turns with him in conducting 
them. 

Far-reaching, ideal plans for the spiritual improvement of Penn- 
sylvania, such as only a man of Zinzendorf's spirit would have 
conceived and attempted, were engaging his thoughts at this time. 
An outhne of these plans, which have been so greatly misunderstood 
and so much misrepresented, may be here given somewhat fully, 
because they reveal the genesis of the whole system of religious 
activity which was subsequently developed with Bethlehem as its 
operating center. His primary purpose, as regards the essential 
matter of Christian teaching, amid the conflict of doctrines and 
confusion of tongues, while multitudes were abandoned by the ecclesi- 
astical authorities in Europe to spiritual starvation and moral 
decadence, may be stated in his own characteristic words. He says : 
"I sought to enthrone the Lamb of God as real Creator, Preserver, 
Redeemer and Sanctifier of the whole world; and to introduce the 
catholicity of the doctrine of His passion as a universal theology for 
the Germans of Pennsylvania, in theory and practice." 

This sets forth the rationale of his scheme. Such a completely 
Christ-centered conception of religion, cherished with his intense 
ardor and profound conviction of its sufficiency for all classes and 
conditions of men ; urged upon the hearts of the people to meet 
their inmost needs and radically change their lives, he would substitute 
for the attenuated subtilties of scholastic theology, for the perfunctory 
routine of mere ecclesiasticism, for legalistic self-righteousness and 
superficial ethics, for sectarian controversy about rites and customs, 
for mystical reveries, theosophic speculations and all the religious 
vagaries that abounded. In his mind Christ-centered meant pre- 
eminently cross-centered in a sense then rarely recognized. Around 
the cross he would anew gather men of all creeds and persuasions, to 
find something essential and soul-satisfying in common, which would 
7 



82 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

divert them from the side-issues about which they wrangled and 
the comparatively trivial things for which they contended. He 
beHeved, not only that the way to the cross to find salvation was 
open in the Divine purpose to all men and might be found by all if 
they wished, but also that a way from the cross, with the simple and 
effectual message, could be found to all, whatever their belief or state 
might be. He would seek avenues of approach to every persuasion 
and points of touch with every form even of perverted and distorted 
Christianity. He would try to present the essential message to the 
different persuasions through the medium of their respective 
traditions, environment, habits of thought and modes of speech, and 
not in the rigid formulas of one or another school. In this way he 
hoped to draw all away from their extremes and lead them to grasp 
and repeat the essential living word in their several religious 
languages. Conceiving thus of unity in diversity, he cherished visions 
of the previous Babel producing a many-tongued pentecostal harmony 
around the cross. 

He fondly hoped to put this high-soaring idea to practical experi- 
ment in Pennsylvania with less difficulty than in Germany, because of 
the absence of a state church and even of any general denominational 
organization ; because of the crude and unsettled state of things, the 
woeful scarcity of gospel ministry and the supposed readiness of 
churchless thotisands to welcome any provisions for their needs. He 
had no thought of trying to outwardly weld denominations. While 
his plan required a federal system of supervision and direction, it had 
in view emphatically the conservation of the general confessional 
distinctions. He classified the religious bodies represented in Penn- 
sylvania as the "Religions" and the "Sects." He sometimes applied 
the first of these terms to all the bodies that had a historic origin 
in general ecclesiastical epochs and movements and had a distinct 
system with defined principles. In this sense not only the Anglican 
communion and the Presbyterian and Baptist bodies, but also the 
Quakers among English-speaking people ; and not only the Lutheran 
and Reformed divisions, but also the Mennonites and even the old 
Tunkers among the Germans, Swedes and Hollanders, were occa- 
sionally spoken of as religions. Generally, however, he used the 
word in a narrower and more sharply defined sense, as applied onlv 
to national church-establishments and to the historic Protestant 
confessions. Thus, commonly, when speaking of the Germans of 
Pennsylvania, the masses who simply adhered to the traditions of 



1742. 83 

Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism of the several schools and 
branches, were had in mind by him as representatives of the religions 
— the German Protestant churchmen of the two main classes. 

All who repudiated these confessions, separated themselves and 
associated on the basis of any specialty were the sects. As regards 
the religions, he wished to see them maintained and fostered on 
their original foundations, where more stress would be laid on their 
common evangelical tenets than on the extreme divergencies of their 
later theological developments ; so that they might stand in closer 
touch on essentials and in better co-operation for the common good, 
while those distinctions which deserved to be mutually tolerated and 
respected were left unimpaired. As to the sects, he proposed to 
approach them in such special ways as would best appeal to their 
idiosyncrasies and, by winning them to a truer conception of essentials, 
draw them away from their extreme separatism, overestimation of 
non-essential specialties and occasional fundamental errors, to again 
recognize something in common with the general religions from 
which they had withdrawn and were alienated. He believed that 
the power of the newly "enthroned Lamb of God" would not only 
soften asperities and reduce friction, but gradually dissolve those 
sectarian formations that were radically pernicious more effectually 
than making war upon them would. His plan was that, wherever his 
good offices were accepted, he would supply the people of these 
various Protestant connections with preaching and pastoral care by 
men of their respective traditional affinities who had joined the 
composite organization which had grown out of the Moravian 
beginning at Herrnhut, with the different elements duly represented 
in conference and management under the general system of operation 
to be estabUshed. This system would thus embrace departments ; 
a Lutheran, a Reformed, a general Baptist department; one for free 
evangelization where none of these traditional Hues needed to be 
followed ; another for the missionary work among the Indians. To 
the minds of those who were unable or unwilling to find his peculiar 
stand-point; who could not conceive of religious effort on any basis 
but that of doctrinal contrarieties or in any quality but that of 
denominational rivalry and propagandism, this elaborate, somewhat 
intricate and certainly novel scheme was incomprehensible. The few 
individuals who then assumed to represent the regular Protestant 
clergy among the multitudes of Pennsylvania, were by nature and 
training incapable of understanding the lofty idea, the disinterested 



84 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

purpose and the benevolent motive back of it. Some had reason 
enough too for sensitive and jealous uneasiness about their dubious 
position among the people, even in such a field, large enough to 
fully engage twenty times their number ; and, with hardly an 
exception, these were persons who could not be expected to know 
a better way of trying to maintain their standing than to coarsely 
attack the reputation and recklessly impugn the motives of every 
other man undertaking religious work in the Province, whom they 
regarded as a competitor. Preferring to think evil of the Count, 
they naturally adopted and circulated the easy conclusion which 
any ill-disposed mind would find suggested, that his plan was only 
a deceitful stratagem to make proselytes for his own particular 
association which they called Herrnhuters and Zinzendorfians, while 
those who spoke English included all of its members under the name 
Moravians. 

Some modern denominational writers, burdened with a supposed 
duty to make out an anti-Zinzendorf case, permit themselves to 
reproduce this shallow, unworthy imputation, and follow the mere 
libeler's short course to an explanation of his complicated experiment ; 
intimating that his real purpose was to proselyte and "make 
Moravians" of the people. Some treat the situation in this particular, 
not as it was, but as it would have been if modern conditions had 
existed — the country full of well-organized churches, ministers enough 
to adequately serve all places and complete systems of administration 
existing among all denominations. Broadly evangelical efforts to 
meet crying need among the great mixed multitude of a new country, 
in a condition of deplorable ecclesiastical neglect, with fewer than a 
dozen very crudely organized and for the most part yet more crudely 
served congregations among more than a hundred thousand German 
Protestants scattered over an area of more than two thousand square 
miles, were a legitimate undertaking on the part of any evangelists 
more concerned with trying to benefit the people than with contending 
for one scholastic system against another. Even if Zinzendorf had 
proposed to operate in such a field on a distinctly Moravian Church 
basis, modern charges of proselyting, under that kind of circumstances, 
would be captious and frivolous. But everyone who is properly 
acquainted with the history of the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania 
knows that his strong opposition to organizing congregations in this 
character and under this name, even where the services of the 
Brethren were most acceptable, accounts for the fact that so little, 



1742. 85 

ill a denominational form, resulted from theirextensive and influential 
early activity. 

It might indeed be said that the Moravian Church eventually 
became established as a distinct denomination in Pennsylvania in 
spite of, rather than in consequence of Zinzendorf's policy and 
method. 

The most indistinct feature of the Count's Pennsylvania plan — next 
to his individual status, that perpetual crux criticorum — was just the 
part to be borne in it by the Moravian Church. The name Moravians, 
loosely applied, then and now, to the whole composite association of 
that time which he had formed out of the Herrnhut beginning, is 
inaccurate and misleading. Clearness can only be found by taking 
the terms Moravians and Moravian Church at that time as he used 
them and in his point of view. Such clearness is necessary in order, 
not only to rightly discern this feature of his plan, but to understand 
many of the movements which emanated from Bethlehem during the 
first years. 

The association, composed of various ecclesiastical elements, which 
had arisen at Herrnhut and was extending elsewhere, was the Briider- 
gemeine — Community of Brethren, or Association of Brethren. Their 
common appellation was simply the Brethren. Its pre-eminent 
purpose was, to be a missionary or evangelistic body. Bethlehem 
was to be its American center. There, as at Herrnhut, there would 
be persons of different general confessional, and ecclesiastical con- 
nections. Their services were to be utilized, as far as possible, among 
their ecclesiastical kindred respectively, for their general spiritual 
improvement and their organization into well-ordered congregations 
with reliable ministers. The people thus served were not to be 
gathered to the membership even of the composite Association of 
Brethren, much less of the Moravian Church as a distinct ecclesi- 
astical body, but in the lines of their several "religions." In 
accordance with this idea, the desire of large numbers of people later 
to be received at Bethlehem, or even to enter into full connection with 
the Association — Gemcine — was not encouraged, whatever to the 
contrary has been declared by the assailants of the Brethren. The 
number of persons who were thus received, either to be utilized in 
the general working force or for special reasons existing in individual 
cases, was really very small compared to the number that sought 
admission. 

The Moravians were specifically the refugees from Moravia whom 
the Count had received at Herrnhut, who composed the main body 



»6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the first missionaries and, with a few exceptions, the pioneer band 
in Pennsylvania. Some refugees not strictly from Moravia, but from 
adjacent parts of Bohemia, were classed with them. The Moravian 
Church, as Zinzendorf then used the term, meant, not the whole 
composite Association or Community of the Brethren then existing, 
but specifically the historic Unitas Fratrum of Bohemia, Moravia 
and Poland, in its suppressed Moravian survival, with its episcopate 
passed on, "in spent contra spent," from Comenius, its last Moravian 
bishop, through a succession of conservers, to Jablonsky, his 
grandson. It was represented in that Association of Brethren in the 
persons of those refugees of its Moravian "hidden seed," who desired 
its resuscitation ; in certain rudiments of organization and principles 
of discipline and order introduced by him in the spirit of its ancient 
Ratio Disciplinac which they wished to see restored ; in some features 
of ritual and general cult concordant with the inner genius of the old 
Church ; in the traditions those Moravians yet cherished of its simple, 
essential evangelicalism, which easily assimilated with both of the 
general Protestant ''religions" on their more approachable sides ; and 
in its preserved episcopate which, in the matter, of ecclesiastical 
continuity, was the most tangible link, and which had been transferred 
by its last two depositaries to the Brethren at Herrnhut.^ 

Zinzendorf looked upon what thus survived of the existence of the 
Brethren's Church of Moravia as a venerable ecclesiastical remnant, 
worthy and capable of being rehabilitated and also of being utilized 
in the promotion of his wider plans. Therefore, it was, for the time 
being, built in, as a piece in his structure ; or rather incorporated as 
an element of the Association in such a quality that there was a 
possibility of its emerging eventually in a more distinct and dominant 
character, where this would seem easier and more desirable than in 
Saxony. But the impress of Zinzendorf's ideas and an overmastering 
German influence averse to such development, not only in Germany 
and England but also in America, where it could have been effected 
most easily and would have been, not only in accordance with the 
desires of the pioneer Moravians, but the most readily understood 
and practical course, kept the Church imbedded in the Association. 
It asserted itself, however, sufficiently to establish an ecclesiastical 
individuality, preserve a defined frame-work and perpetuate the 
historic orders inherited. After many years, this individuality became 

I See on the above points, Chapter II. note I, also ZinzendorPs words on rending the 
Ratio Disciplinac and history with dedication by Comenius, and passage on Jablonsky. 



1742. 87 

sufficiently fixed that in modern times the Association of the Brethren 
— or Unity of the Brethren — and the Moravian Church may be spoken 
of as identical, and the term Moravians applied to its members as a 
general denomination name equivalent to the term the Brethren. 

In Zinzendorf's Pennsylvania plan, the function of the Moravian 
Church, in the strict sense of that time, was then a three-fold one. 
First, it v^'ould constitute the proper ecclesiastical footing for his 
department of free evangelization, which was not to be directed into 
either Lutheran or Reformed lines, when prosecuted among English- 
speaking churchless people, or among miscellaneous German 
sectarians, so that on this basis the evangelists would not seem to 
be merely gathering the people out of one sect into another; the 
proper footing also for the missionary work among the Indians who 
were heathen, standing in no kind of relation to any existing Christian 
body, so that not even the most captious railer could call Moravian 
work among them proselyting, even if men who had been members 
of one of the "religions," and joined the Brethren, engaged in it with 
them. 

In the second place, it was to stand among the religions and sects 
as a living witness for an evangelical harmony above those points of 
difference at which creeds diverged and denominations drew apart. 
Merged in an association which enveloped its identity, its ardently 
loyal sons would count themselves as but one of the tribes of that 
general family. As such, they would seek touch with the two great 
Protestant reHgions, even doctrinally, at the point of closest approach ; 
a Christ-centered point which Zinzendorf conceived to lie back of all 
divergent scholastic systems in the primitive genius of Protestantism, 
as promulgated, 1530-1533; the Augsburg Confession, 1530, the 
articles, doctrinal and pastoral, of the Reformed Synod of Berne, 1532, 
the German reissue of the confession of the Brethren of Bohemia 
and Moravia, published under the direction of Luther and with his 
preface in 1533. In the third place the Moravian Church was to 
be the special handmaiden of the two great reHgions — Lutheran and 
Reformed — in gathering, organizing and nurturing their scattered and 
demoralized hosts in Pennsylvania ; among other things, in serving 
them for the time-being through its episcopate, by conferring a proper 
ordination upon the men found and called, under the Count's general 
plan, as suitable and worthy to labor among them in the ministry, in 
default of ministers sent by their authorities in Europe. Haiidlangcr 
dicnst he also called this service, like that of men carrying stone and 



OS A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

mortar to the builders. In one of his utterances on this subject, 
anticipating a well-ordered situation finally resulting, he said: "If 
these two religions will go hand in hand and use the treasures of their 
respective churches for the common good, they can constitute a 
complete apostolic church and bring all the small sects back into 
accord with them ; and then the Moravian Church would see her 
two beloved brothers in one house, and would be their faithful sister." 
He contemplated an ideal reproduction in Pennsylvania of what had 
in theory been attained in the Sendomir Consensus of 1570. 

Further obscurities in the peculiar individual status of Zinzendorf, 
when he came to Pennsylvania, have occasioned confusion and error 
in sundry publications, commonly taken as authoritative sources, and 
even disposed some writers, who have treated the subject without 
sufficient information, or with a hostile bias, to indulge in disrespectful 
and injurious comments. Therefore some statements, with a view 
to rendering this matter clearer, may be added to the foregoing 
elucidations. 

He was not only "the banished Count," and the promoter of the 
Association of the Brethren with its growing evangelistic work, but 
was a bona fide evangelical minister of the Augsburg Confession and 
the Lutheran order, prior to and apart from the relations he bore to 
the Moravian Church, strictly speaking. Naturally, historians of the 
Lutheran Church do not usually regard him as such at any period of 
his career, because his views and methods are not held to have been 
conformable to Lutheran standards ; because his work never bore 
a distinctly denominational character under consistorial direction ; and 
because — particularly from the denominational standpoint in America, 
where there is nowhere a general Lutheran state church admitting 
the existence of special bodies with distinct systems and names within 
its pale — his connection with the Moravian Brethren, and even with 
the general Association of the Brethren, is viewed as connection with 
another church and therefore necessarily a severance of all Lutheran 
connection. Some writers have made shorter work in disposing of 
his claim, by discrediting or ignoring the facts on which he based it, 
and calling it all a pretense. This, however, is the method of the 
mere combatant, not of the candid investigator and honorable 
historian. Some of the steps by which he made his way into the 
ministry would appear needlessly indirect ; would even seem shifty 
and eccentric, when the complications and peculiar impediments with 
which his rank and station and the active opposition of his family 



1742. «9 

embarrassed his course, are not duly considered — circumstances 
which are not easily understood and appreciated now. His deter- 
mination to attain this desire ; his undiminished attachment, under 
later circumstances, to that "religion" in which he was reared — the 
original genius and system of which he esteemed above every other, 
as appears repeatedly in his recorded utterances; his unremitting 
efforts to make himself understood in it and to keep in adjustment to 
it with his unique institutions, which he was profoundly convinced 
were not inconsistent with its genuine spirit, were pathetic, in view of 
the attitude then so generally taken towards him by its eminent 
clergy of both the orthodox and pietist schools, and the indefensible 
assaults of many of the lesser and baser sort. The chief points of 
his course into the Lutheran ministry were the following: In 1732, 
measures to transfer his Berthelsdorf domain to the Countess, in 
anticipation of the approaching troubles, by which he extricated 
himself from the trammels of his position as lord of the manor ; and 
the relinquishment of his seat at the court of Dresden cleared his 
way somewhat. In 1733, a favorable ex cathedra opinion, from 
Tuebingen, in response to his inquiry, settled in his mind the question 
whether he could, as a Lutheran and within general Lutheran lines, 
foster the Herrnhut association on the proposed basis, and indulge 
the wishes of the Moravians to the extent had in view. From the 
standpoint of this opinion, he considered his entire subsequent work a 
special one in which he engaged as primarily a Lutheran and 
remaining such. 

In April, 1734, after some particular theological study, in addition 
to that of his university years, he went to Stralsund to seek a 
theological examination. To avoid the embarrassments of con- 
ventional etiquette and prevent the name Zinzendorf from figuring 
in the position into which he there stepped as a candidate, that of a 
private tutor, he used as an incognito one of his minor titles, Von 
Freydeck — a common practice among the nobility under peculiar 
circumstances — but did not, of course, expect that his identity would 
really remain concealed, any more than any other conspicuous noble- 
man traveling incognito would expect this. The result was a testi- 
monial to his Lutheran orthodoxy as a theologian, issued by the 
Stralsund divines, dated April 26, 1734. 

He placed the small sword worn on occasions according to custom 
by men of his rank at court, in the hands of the Lutheran Super- 
intendent at Stralsund, in token of his renunciation of civil for 



go A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ecclesiastical station and his first step into the ministry. Upon his 
return to Herrnhut he notified the Queen of Denmark of this, in view 
of the Danebrog order he had received from the Danish King, which 
was mentioned among his dignities in the Stralsund testimonial. This 
distinguished order he eventually returned. At the same time he 
informed the Lutheran Superintendent at Dresden, Dr. Valentine 
Ernst Loescher, of his intentions, citing the case of Prince George 
of Anhalt, in the days of the Reformation, as a precedent for such 
a step on the part of one of his rank and connections. Then, feeling 
the increasing weight of disapproval on the part of relatives and 
associate noblemen, he planned a course which he thought would 
bear some similarity to that of the Anhalt prince, and would be 
tolerated by royalty and nobility, under the rigid ideas of that time, 
as consistent with his station. Deciding to pass into the ministry 
under the church of Wuertemberg, where the way seemed to open 
more readily than elsewhere, he proposed to restore, at his own 
cost, the ruined abbey of St. George which, with its ancient benefits, 
had passed under the control of the Lutheran Church ; to fit it up as 
a theological seminary to furnish the settlements and missions of 
the Brethren with a trained ministry; and himself assume the 
direction under the old prerogatives of the seat. The Duke of Wuer- 
temberg, fearing difficulties to himself by reviving that obsolete 
prelacy, declined to favor the proposition, and nothing came of it. A 
few weeks after the Duke's reply, November 8, 1734, the Covuit 
formally notified the Lutheran Directory at Stuttgart of his purpose 
to enter the ministry in that realm, and received, in response, their 
cordial approval; Chancellor, Dr. Christopher Matthew PfafT, of 
Tuebingen University having, shortly before, delivered an elaborate 
favorable opinion on the question of the tokens of an inner call and 
of qualification, submitted in a document by Zinzendorf through 
Spangenberg, who had also conducted the negotiations in reference 
to St. George. 

December 19, 1734, the theological faculty of Tuebingen passed 
upon his final, formal declaration submitted in print. The Stralsund 
testimonial was confirmed and, notwithstanding some misgivings on 
the part of one or two, he was regularly received into holy orders 
after the manner in vogue, his official position in view being that of 
assistant to his Berthelsdorf minister. December 19 and 21, he 
preached at Tuebingen in the quality of an accredited theologian and 
minister of the Lutheran Church. * 



1742. 91 

Two years later, and after his banishment from Saxony, he was 
strongly persuaded by Frederick William I, King of Prussia, who 
was interested in his work and favored the development of the 
Moravian Church on a more distinct basis, to not remain simply a 
Lutheran minister, but to receive consecration as a bishop of that 
Church. Zinzendorf, after carefully considering the matter and taking 
counsel with the aged Bishop Jablonsky at Berlin and with the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, concluded to follow this suggestion, and was 
so consecrated by Jablonsky and David Nitschmann with the written 
concurrence of Sitkovius, on May 20, 1737, with the understanding 
that he assumed this episcopate of an ancient suppressed church as 
a Lutheran divine, just as Jablonsky had borne it, holding position 
as a clergyman of the Reformed Church ; David Nitschmann, the 
missionary bishop, representing the actual Moravian Brethren. Thus 
his scheme of having the several general religions figure as tropes 
in his Association of Brethren would be represented in the episcopate 
which had been introduced to furnish ordination to all departments ; 
and the manifest demands of the situation that he — then at the head 
of the whole work — should be a bearer of this digity before all 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities, would be met. He intended how- 
ever that his active representation and exercise of it before the public 
should be an ad interim function under the exigencies of the time ; 
for, as he said, he did not consider himself the proper person to be 
a bishop. Therefore, when he formed his plans for Pennsylvania, 
where he wished to appear ecclesiastically as simply a Tuebin- 
gen theologian and minister of the Lutheran order as pre- 
viously, he, in July, 1741, before starting for America, retired from 
this episcopacy. He then called himself, so far as his relation 
specificall)' to the Moravian Church was concerned, Ancien Eveqiie des 
Freres — a retired senior, or bishop of the Brethren. After his return 
to Europe, he never used the title of a bishop in any comriiunications 
or negotiations, but used that of Ordinarins. He did not, however, 
regard this as debarring or disqualifying him in the matter of 
pariticipating in ordinations. Therefore, first and last, he considered 
himself a Lutheran divine, so far as general ecclesiastical status in 
connection with one of the religions was concerned, and looked upon 
his other offices and duties in connection with the Brethren, to whom 
he devoted himself, as special. 

But the embarrassments of his troublesome rank pursued him to 
Pennsylvania, and he soon perceived that this was in his way yet 



92 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

more than the Moravian episcopate would have been. When he 
arrived in America he took another of his lesser titles, that of von 
Thurnstein, and so announced himself to the Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, who being both a well-informed and well-bred gentleman, 
respected his incognito and made use of it in addressing communi- 
cations to him. But he found that the ignorant misunderstood and the 
malicious misrepresented his course ; and the rude liberties taken with 
him by ill-bred assailants, subjected his ancestral name to indignities 
under which he felt his kindred falling with him, on account of the 
course he had taken in a conviction of his calling, but against their 
protest. This so oppressed his mind that he resolved to take an 
extraordinary step which he had thought of before as a last resort. 
This was to formally renounce his rank and title^ with a view to 
escaping from its embarrassments and delivering his family from 
annoyance through the detraction he suffered in the craze of the 
time. 

2 The Count's full array of titles, as given by Spangenberg in his Life of Zinzendorf, is 
the following: Nicholas Lewis, Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf; Lord of the 
Baronies of Freydeck, Schoeneck, Thurnstein and the Vale of Wachovia ; Lord of the 
Manor of Upper, Middle and Lower Berthelsdorf; Hereditary Warden of the Chase to his 
Imperial Roman Majesty, in the Duchy of Austria, below the Ems; late Aulic and Justicial 
Counsellor to his Majesty, Augustus II, King of Poland, for the Electorate of Saxony. It 
is not surprising that such men as those several ministers of the religions, sectarian leaders 
and separatists in Pennsylvania — who agreed on nothing but to attack Zinzendorf and incite 
the populace against him — did not know that noblemen with several titles sometimes, for 
particular reasons, temporarily took a different one from that by which they were mainly 
known; that under the ramified and punctilious etiquette of those days, in titled circles, this 
was at times decidedly important to them ; that this was known as traveling or sojourning 
incognito, which meant, not an attempt to pass for somebody else, but merely that, for some 
reason, their prominent rank was not to be associated with the quality in which they were 
then figuring ; or that they wished to be exempt, for the time being, from official and cere- 
monious constraints inseparable from the station represented by their chief title. That kind 
of men could not be expected therefore to know that Count Zinzendorf really was also Von 
Thiirnstein and had a right to the name, as in Europe, on other occasions, he had used the 
names Von Freydeck and Von der Wachau when he did not wish to be formally recognized 
and dealt with as the Count of Zinzendorf ; and men who understood such matters, as at 
the court of Berlin and among the conservative and decorous classes in London, not only 
addressed him but referred to him under his incognito, even though they well knew that he 
was Zinzendorf 

Neither is it surprising that some better-informed but ill-disposed persons in Pennsylvania, 
the same as in Europe, pretended not to know these things, when alluding to this matter in 
aspersing him. But when respectable and presumably well-informed modern writers betray 
that same lack of knowledge, or follow the course of those in his day who affected to ignore 
it, and call Von Thiirnstein a "pseudonym," or "a fictitious title," or "an assumed name," or 



1742. 93 

At a meeting of the leading men of Philadelphia, held at his request 
on his birthday, May 26, 1742, at the house of Governor Thomas, he 
published such a renunciation in a Latin address, of which printed 
copies had been distributed to the persons present, in order that they 
might follow more understandingly, because of the difference between 
the Continental pronunciation of Latin, which he used, and the English 
pronunciation to which these gentlemen were accustomed. These 
copies were then collected and deposited under seal with Charles 
Brockden, Deputy Master of the Rolls of the Province and Recorder 
of Deeds for the city, who was present.^ They were to remain in 
his charge pending further necessary steps in Europe. This act, 
which created quite a sensation and was variously commented upon, 
was thus in the nature rather of a public notice of his purpose. It 
was never really consummated ; for after his return to Europe, he was 
urgently dissuaded from the step, not only by his family, but by the 
civil authorities, and the reasons presented were so cogent that he 
yielded. 

It seemed an eccentric notion, but the animating spirit was heroic. 
Believing that the choice was before him between his noble rank 
and title, with everything honorable before men that went with it ; and 
devoting himself to the work of the gospel and the spiritual good of 
his fellowmen, in the way he had chosen and believed to be the right 

speak of his "failure to conceal his identity," as if they thought this was what he intended 
and expected to do, this cannot be called not surprising, and it is hardly excusable. What 
his detractors in Pennsylvania at that time said about him in their ignorance or animosity 
would not be worth referring to in connection with this kind of a matter. The modified 
modem reproductions by writers who should not do this, warrant the use of some space to 
set the subject right before the readers of these pages. Zinzendorf 's singular resort to an 
antiquated prerogative in creating an adoptive relation to the Moravian Father Nitschraann, 
associated, as he once intimated, with his assumption, "ad interim^" of the Moravian epis- 
copate, occasioned his freak of using this name several times in a half playful manner in 
certain letters while in Pennsylvania — a thing also given publicity by eager censors. That 
requires no justification. It belonged to those odd fancies which unnecessarily gave occa- 
sion to carpers, often rendered his words and movements inscrutable to plain, matter-of-fact 
people and offended those who had no sympathy with anything beyond the limits of sturdy 
soberness. He genially acknowledged "a disposition to extravagances." 

Among the Quakers of Pennsylvania he passed as plain " Friend Lewis" and among the 
Brethren, with like plainness, as "Bruder Ludwig." 

3 Brockden's attested copy of the memorandum of the formality, with the names of those 
present, printed in the Buedingsche Sammlimgen, III, p. 330, is to be found on page 95 of 
The Early History of the Church of the United Brethren^ etc., by Levin T. Reichel — a 
manuscript printed in 1888 by the Moravian Historical Society. 



94 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

way for him, he determined to pursue the latter and let the former 
go. His only reward was to be yet more calumniated, to have his 
family name yet more ruthlessly dragged into the gutter, and to have 
later historians, in sympathy with the coarse revilement of that time, 
report the whole procedure as merely gotten up "for stage effect." 

These various elucidations, given thus fully in connection, to set the 
persons and plans at the foundation of the Bethlehem activities in a 
correct light, will serve in advance, instead of explanations which 
would otherwise have to be added specially to some movements and 
arrangements farther on. They will also forestall some details in 
connection with important occurrences of the months from January 
to June, 1742, which would be necessary in so far as these have a 
bearing on the subject of these pages. 

Zinzendorf's most conspicuous local activity during those months 
lay in his connection with the neglected and demoralized German 
Lutheran congregation of Philadelphia, long without a minister, dis- 
couraged through fruitless efforts to procure one from Europe, but 
continuing to worship as best they could in an old building belonging 
to William Allen, which had, as it seems, done duty as a barn, a car- 
penter's shop and a butcher's shop, and then been fitted up as a 
make-shift place of worship. Around that rude meeting-house are 
clustered some of the most disagreeable sensations of his activity in 
Pennsylvania ; and with his efforts to there be of service to his 
neglected co-religionists are associated the most persistently adverse 
and derogatory representations of his work in America that have 
been perpetuated in print. The beginning of his connection with 
that congregation was his preaching there, January 21 N. S., on invi- 
tation of the church wardens. This led through a series of negotia- 
tions to his public formal acceptance of a call to be their minister, 
which occurred on the second Sunday after Easter, May 13 N. S. ; 
the re-organization of the congregation and election of new wardens 
on the basis of some general articles of constitution ; and the appoint- 
ment of John Christopher Pyrlaeus, who was a Lutheran candidate 
of the University of Leipsic, to be his assistant. He spoke of this 
call as unanimous. This must doubtless be taken merely in the sense 
of nemine contradicente ; for while the preponderating sentiment 
unquestionably favored this solution of their preplexities about secur- 
ing a pastor, there was suppressed dissatisfaction in some quarters 
which was worked upon by agitators outside, and some unstable ele- 
ments, at first much taken with the plan, were won to the opposition 



1742. , 95 

when the active crusade against Zinzendorf was opened. This did 
not start with the Lutherans. The German Reformed people used 
the meeting-house on the last Sunday of each month, when they 
were ministered to by the Rev. John Philip Boehm, of Whitpain, 
whose itinerary embraced this charge. He was "a man of war from 
his youth," skilled in the tactics of the church militant, immovable 
in what he conceived to be his duty as well as in any prejudice that 
possessed him, and, in keeping with a rugged nature and rough 
environment, was not over-choice about the weapons he used. He 
represented in Pennsylvania the extreme Calvinism and the austere 
rule of the Classis of Amsterdam under which he was laboring to 
gather and organize the Reformed elements of the region. He was 
the chief promulgator in the Province, of the so-called pastoral letter 
of that doughty body, issued five years before, which was the text- 
book of those ministers of New York and New Jersey who were lift- 
ing up their voices so vehemently to save the country from the Mora- 
vians. From a perusal of its misleading contents, he had conceived 
an intense aversion to the Count in advance, and upon the appear- 
ance of the latter on the scene he proceeded to reproduce its stric- 
tures and calumnies, with additions, in a pastoral letter of his own, 
which he had printed and circulated ; besides continuing to cry aloud 
and spare not wherever he went. Some of its absurd statements and 
accusations seemed to Zinzendorf sufficiently injurious in their influ- 
ence among the uninformed and credulous masses, that, contrary to 
his usual course with such pasquinades, he wrote a reply which, later 
in the summer, was, on consultation, put into the hands of George 
Neisser, to responsibly issue. He gave it in charge of the printer, 
Henry Miller, then employed in Franklin's office, where it was 
printed. 

Mr. Boehm's crusade had a climax in Philadelphia, after it had 
progressed far enough to enlist the active co-operation of the rabble, 
that was possibly more heroic than even he had anticipated. On a 
Sunday in July, five ruffians, avowing themselves to be Reformed, 
with a promiscuous gang behind them, entered the meeting house 
while Pyrlaeus was preaching, interrupted him with the ' statement 
that some one outside wished to speak to him, and when this ruse 
failed, seized him, dragged him from the pulpit and out of the build- 
ing, kicked and trampled upon him. It became clear later that some 
persons in the Lutheran party who had joined the crusade, were impli- 
cated in this act, as well as in the previous carrying out of Mr. 



96 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Boehm's suggestion to surreptitiously put a special padlock on the 
door "to keep the cattle out;" and in the next step, to have the man 
with the key absent himself when "the Count's party" would assemble 
for service, so that if they forced an entrance — as they did — into their 
place of worship, an accusation of trespass, and even a pretext for 
forcible ejectment, although it was their rightful Sunday, might be 
trumped up. This incident ended the connection of Zinzendorf and 
of those who adhered to him with that meeting-house. During the 
months in which he was officiating there he continued also to preach 
in the German Reformed church of Germantown. That congrega- 
tion was composed of a different element of the Reformed Church 
which had declined to adopt Boehm's church constitution and the 
Amsterdam ideas. He had no official connection with it, and his 
crusade, supplemented by that of the coterie of Germantown Sepa- 
ratists, failed to produce much effect there until at a later time. The 
people under Bechtel's leadership were more disposed to fall in with 
the teaching and spirit of the Berne Synod of 1532, which Zinzen- 
dorf presented to their attention. Bechtel was ordained there on 
April 22 N. S., by Bishop Nitschmann, to be Reformed minister and 
superintend the work that would be organized among people of 
Reformed connection elsewhere, under Zinzendorf's plan, on the 
basis of the Berne Synod; which he thought- — in the absence of any 
authority in the Province decreeing what standards should be adopted 
denominationally, or of even a general denominational organization 
on the basis of any of these varying st^jidards — had as much right on 
the English soil and under the tolerant government of Pennsylvania, 
as the canons of the Synod of Dort, imported from Holland, had. 
The Count had meanwhile compiled a unique catechism for popular 
useMn the particular work of the time, based on the principal twelve 
of the forty-four articles of the Synod of Berne, selected in the line 
of his general object "to enthrone the Lamb of God" in Pennsyl- 
vania, and introduced by a rhymed paraphrase of the captions of those 
selected chapters. The work was turned over in the rough to Bech- 
tel, who gave it, together with the Berne articles, thorough study, 
within the limits of his ability and education, and then, after it was 
gotten into final shape, with some practical suggestions on his part 
utilized, it was adopted by him as a medium of instruction. In his 
capacity as a Reformed minister, on that ancient broad evangelical 
platform, he adopted and edited the work, in accordance with the 
understanding reached, and had it printed under his name, as publicly 



1742. 97 

responsible for its issue and promulgation. This catechism and a 
collection of hymns for general use at that time, compiled by Zinzen- 
dorf at the beginning of the year and printed with the title Hirten- 
Lieder von Bethlehem — Pastoral Hymns of Bethlehem — are now rari- 
ties among the Pennsylvania imprints of that period.'' 

It remains yet to introduce the most prominent events of those 
months from January to June — the general assemblies which resulted 
from the efforts of Henry Antes. They may be treated with com- 
parative brevity, because some of their details He outside the scope of 
these pages, and others having an important bearing upon what 
subsequently developed with Bethlehem as its operating center, 
in so far as Zinzendorf's ideas influenced action and results, appear 
with sufficient clearness in the exposition of his scheme already 
given. In accordance with the understanding reached December 20, 
Antes, on December 26 N. S., issued his circular,'' inviting the leaders 
of the various persuasions to participate in a general "Conference of 

4 Of the Hirten Lieder, only two copies are known by the writer to exist. The edition 
was probably distributed, for the most part at least, in paper covers merely, as special 
collections of hymns for religious gatherings frequently now are — hence its extreme 
scarcity. The collection was printed by Saur of Germantown, who is reported to have con- 
descendingly said he did so because he "judged it to be harmless.' Doubtless he regarded 
it as rather a matter of business when it came to making out the bill and collecting the cash. 
A second edition "Nach ifer Germantoioner Edition " was incorporated as part first in the 
small German hymn-book of the Moravian Church published, 1754, in London. More 
copies of the Bechtel catechism are extant, but the existence of an exact reprint — imprint, date 
and all — issued in Europe in 1743, but with German type, often leads to confusion with 
the original. Saur, as self-appointed censor of all religions, sects and ministers, 
refused to print the catechism because it had Bechtel's name to it. Franklin, less disposed 
to such censorship, took the contract and printed it with Latin type. An English and 
a Swedish edition of 1742 and 1743 respectively are extremely rare. 

5 In view of the interpretation put upon this move and the light in which the proceedings 
are presented by writers of biased attitude, using adverse and often quite erroneous accounts 
as sources, the circular of Antes deserves a place here, to reveal the real purpose of the 
gatherings and the spirit in which they were called. It reads in translation as follows : 

In the Name of Jesus: Amen. 
Beloved Friend and Brother : 

Inasmuch as frightful evil is wrought in the Church of Christ, among the 
souls that have been called to the Lamb (to follow Christ) mainly through mistrust and sus- 
picion towards each other — and that often without reason — whereby every purpose of good 
is continually thwarted — although we have been commanded to love; it has been under 
consideration for two years or more, whether it would not be possible to appoint a general 
assembly, not to wrangle about opinions, but to treat with each other in love on the most 



9© A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

Religions" at Germantown on New Year Day O. S., January 12 N. S.° 
Seven such general conferences took place : the first, January 
12-13, at Germantown, in a vacant house of the clock-maker, Theobald 
Endt; the second, January 21-23, in Falkner's Swamp, at the house 
of George Huebner; the third, February 21-23, ^^ Oley, at the house 
of John de Turck ; the fourth, March 21-23, a* Germantown, in the 
house of John Ashmead, where Zinzendorf had his headquarters 
several months ; the fifth, April 18-20, in the Germantown Reformed 
church; the sixth, May 16-18, at Germantown, in the house of 
Lawrence Schweitzer; the seventh, June 13-15, in Philadelphia, in 
a house of Edward Evans on Race Street above Second. 

Upwards of a hundred persons generally attended the regular 
sessions, in which, on several occasions, as many as fifty participated 
officially as accredited deputies of various persuasions. A great many 
more were present at some public meetings. At the beginning no 
fewer than thirteen varieties of creed and sect could be counted in 
the motley assemblage. Seven such were represented by accredited 
deputies, and several separatists, representing only themselves, took 

important articles of faith, in order to ascertain how closely we can approach each other 
fundamentally, and, as for the rest, bear with one another in love on opinions which do not 
subvert the ground of salvation ; and whether, in this way, all judging and criticising 
might not be diminished and done away with among the aforesaid souls, by which they 
expose themselves before the world and give occasion to say : those who preach peace and 
conversion are themselves at variance. Therefore this matter, so important, has now been 
under advisement again with many brethren and God-seeking souls, and been weighed 
before the Lord ; and it has been decided to meet on the coming New Year's Day at Ger- 
mantown. Hence you are cordially invited to attend, together with several more of your 
brethren who have a foundation for their faith and can state it, if the Lord permits. It has 
been announced to nearly all of the others (persuasions) through letters like this. There 
will probably be a large gathering, but do not let this deter you; for all will be arranged 
without great commotion. .May the Lord Jesus grant us His blessing. 

From your poor and unworthy, but cordial friend and brother, 
Frederick Township, HENRY ANTES, 

in Philadelphia Co., 
December 15 (26 N.S.), 1741. 

6 The old style dates then yet officially used in Pennsylvania, and therefore attached to the 
circular and the reports of the meetings, are usually retained in history. The new style 
dates are here taken, to agree with those adopted by the Brethren and now associated with 
occurrences just before, during and right after these gatherings ; especially the important 
events that directly followed at Bethlehem, with which only new style dates have been con- 
nected and made historic. Otherwise, a sudden skip of eleven days would appear between 
the close of the last conference and the organization at Bethlehem, making an interval of 
ten days seem twenty-one days. 



1/42. 99 

part in the proceedings. The Moravian Brethren from Bethlehem 
who attended, were there only as individuals and unofficially. They 
brought no credentials as deputies, for they had no organization yet 
in Pennsylvania, and took the position that they did not represent 
one of the existing religions and sects of the Province. Others who 
belonged to the general Association of the Brethren in Europe and 
regularly participated in the conferences were associated in this 
capacity with the several religions — Lutheran or Reformed — in which 
they had been brought up, and among the adherents of which they 
were to labor in Pennsylvania. This was consistent with Zinzendorf's 
general plan, and if the explanation of this plan already given is kept 
in mind, this idea can be understood. Not until in the seventh con- 
ference did the Moravian Brethren figure as representing a recognized 
distinct body in Pennsylvania. That the names of some of them were 
among the signatures witnessing the journal of one and another con- 
ference, signified nothing in the matter of their relation to it ; for, 
as was explicitly stated, these witnesses were purposely chosen at 
random from among reputable men present at the sessions without 
regard to their being deputed members or not. 

In the nature of things, it could not be expected that all of these 
incongruous elements — some of them fanatical in the extreme, others, 
like the group of Germantown separatists, hopelessly irreconcilable 
and contumacious — could be led to any kind of agreement, even 
under the simple plan of Henry Antes, which, at first, sought nothing 
more than a cessation of sectarian hostilities ; agreement to disagree 
peaceably on settled differences ; mutual recognition of whatever good 
there might be in each system ; a covenant to labor more earnestly 
for the common welfare, each party in its own way. Some came only 
to propagate their specialties. Some were intent on sowing discord 
and defeating the object from the beginning. Such, when they found 
themselves headed off and were unable to put their way through, 
resorted to misrepresentation and revilement ; and their screeds 
finding their way into print, have chiefly furnished the materials on 
vi'hich those writers who have wished to present adverse accounts of 
the whole movement, have based their versions. 

Therefore, by the time the fourth conference was reached, only 
Lutheran and Reformed elements that were in accord with Zinzen- 
dorf's plan ; certain of the Mennonites, Tunkers and "Hermits" 
attending as individuals not deputed by their respective bodies, and 
the Moravian Brethren, also on this footing, remained in it. But 

L.ofC. 



lOO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

with this sifting, a gradual development into a more tangible organ- 
ization took place. The convention assumed the character of a 
standing body, and what at first was only a "Conference of Religions" 
became "the Pennsylvania General Synod." In the report of its 
proceedings as finally shaped and printed, the several conferences 
are called synods. Thus the common term, the "Seven Pennsylvania 
Synods" came into vogue. This General Synod was supposed to 
represent what Zinzendorf styled "the Church of God in the Spirit," 
with its membership of sincere and genuine Christians found among 
the various religions and sects. It is a misapprehension to suppose 
that under this term he had in mind merely the constituency repre- 
sented in that Synod. The second article adopted in the very first 
conference was an answer to the question : "What is embraced in the 
Communion of Saints?" and was the following declaration: "The 
Church of God in the Spirit throughout the world, which is His body, 
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, is one which cannot be num- 
bered, and members of it are to be found in places where they would 
never be sought." The term meant simply what is understood by 
"the Invisible Church" within the external pale of the Church Univer- 
sal. That Pennsylvania General Synod was had in mind as instituted 
to represent the Pennsylvania contingent of this Invisible Church, and 
to foster fellowship and co-operation among such true children of God 
in all denominations. The step which constituted this standing Synod 
was taken at the close of the third conference, when Trustees of the 
Synod were chosen. Fifty names were written on pieces of paper. A 
civil ofificer, present as usual by request, drew thirty of these names. 
Then another appointed person drew from this number, twenty. Of 
these twenty, ten were drawn, and of the ten finally five. After that 
three of the five were elected. These three were empowered to select 
two other men to serve with them, whose names were not to be 
known by any but the Trustees, unless it should be thought advisable 
to communicate their names to the government of Pennsylvania. It 
was furthermore decreed that if it should become commonly known 
who they were, their appointment should lapse and others should be 
chosen in their places. These two were to labor unobtrusively, with- 
out being known as having an official appointment ; to oversee and 
foster the union of the Church of God in the Spirit among the people 
connected with the Synod ; to prevent, as well as they could, its dis- 
solution on the one hand, and every tendency towards the formation 
of a new sect out of it, distinct from the existing denominations, on 



1742. loi 

the other hand. Subsequently it was decided to have stated meetings 
of the Synod and to hold quarterly conferences of the ministers con- 
nected with it, at Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Conestoga or elsewhere 
in the country. 

Zinzendorf's personal connection with these conferences began with 
undergoing a general inquisition at the first one, on the part of the 
different sectarians assembled, who had come prepared to make him 
a target. He had gone down among them as one of them, on their 
level, and had to submit to the decidedly democratic and, in some 
cases, insolent liberties they took with him. He proved himself equal 
to the situation, however. Some left full of spleen, and took refuge 
in shooting at him from a comfortable distance through Saur's print- 
ing-press and furnishing new ammunition to his enemies in Europe. 
Others were won, or learned regard, and at the second conference he 
was unanimously chosen Syndic or Moderator. He presided in this 
capacity at the remaining sessions, relieved occasionally by Antes, 
who had opened the first conference and presided at it, or by some 
one else. When the indistinctness of his position to the minds of so 
many was distorted to his prejudice, he insisted upon the basis he 
claimed when he came to Pennsylvania, and plainly declared that he 
assumed the moderatorship at those conferences, "not in the char- 
acter of a special, free servant of God as Mr. Whitefield had labored," 
but in the capacity of a Lutheran minister. He declared his convic- 
tion that his own religion, in which he was reared, was the best 
ground on which to stand in appealing to sects and schismatics in 
those assemblies, and stated that he "needed no theology for that 
position other than that to be found in Luther's smaller catechism." 
In conducting the proceedings he secured agreement at the outset to 
an extraordinary measure which was subsequently more reviled than 
any other feature by those who first acquiesced in it and then, when 
they found it restraining their fanatical turbulence or aggressive 
contentiousness, "forsook the conference to go out and write pas- 
quils." This measure was to regularly submit to the lot the ques- 
tion of introducing any new matter that any one might wish to bring 
forward, orally or in writing. This, it was thought, could more grace- 
fully be accepted, if it should rule out anything, than a general regu- 
lation limiting subjects, or a vote on each special case, or a decision 
from the chair; and in this way no previous inquiry into the nature 
or purpose of the communication or proposition in question was 
needed, in order to decide whether to admit or reject it. It was 



I02 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

intended, under the peculiar circumstances, to control the propensity 
to thrust in irrelevant, unprofitable or controversial themes, and to 
doi this in a manner that might be taken as Providential overruling, 
without the risk or restricting liberty or quenching the spirit by an 
exercise of human will or judgment. Zinzendorf set the example of 
rigidly applying this method to whatever he thought of introducing 
or proposing, and, as he afterwards stated, usually had some person 
inimical to him draw the lot in his case.'' 

A beginning was made with organizing congregations for the sev- 
eral religions under this Pennsylvania Synod ; for the Lutherans, that 
in Philadelphia, as reconstructed by Zinzendorf, and several in the 
countr}' ; for the Reformed, who would adopt the Synod of Berne 
in preference to Boehm's Amsterdam cult, that in Germantown, as 
reconstructed after Bechtel's ordination, and one in the country. 
Zinzendorf became inspector of the Lutheran department and Bech- 
tel of the Reformed department of the Synod's work. The state- 
ment that Zinzendorf came to Pennsylvania claiming the 

7 This arrangement, which Zinzendorf himself later referred to as adopted for an extraor- 
dinary situation, and not advisable under normal conditions, has been mentioned by some 
historians as introduced in accordance with Moravian custom. No such method has ever 
been in vogue in conducting Moravian synods or conferences. Apart from this extreme 
application of it, the use of the lot was not an entirely new and strange thing among the 
people who were there assembled, and all agreed to the plan at first. Zinzendorf even inti- 
mated in one of his later references to it, that the original proposition to pursue this course 
did not emanate from him. It was far more common in former times than now, among 
Germans and some others, to use the lot in various ways, in making selections, decid- 
ing questions or seeking guidance in perplexity ; or to employ methods akin to it, such as 
drawing names, numbers or questions, yes or no, drawing, in connection with many a matter, 
from an assortment of Scripture texts, opening the Bible at random for a suggestive passage, etc. 
Those who think of the employment of the lot as an exclusively Moravian practice in times past, 
lack proper information. Moravians became conspicuous before the world in this particular be- 
because all their doings were so much advertised in print — books were not written about other 
people who used the lot privately or collectively— and because what gradually became, among 
them an uncommonly prevalent practice, through example of Zinzendorf, who from his youth 
privately followed this custom to an inordinate degree, was, after his death, officially estab- 
lished and reduced to system, as a process of governmental machinery ; applied, from the 
control of the whole down to congregations and individuals, in a variety of ways which, 
even in those times, many in the Church did not favor. In this only, and not in the optional 
use of the lot by people privately or officially, individually or jointly, did the Moravian 
Church stand unique, so long as this was maintained, and present a singular ecclesiastical 
experiment. Less than twenty years after the establishment of this official lot regime, oppo- 
sition was so strong that the General Synod (1782) was constrained to begin modifying it. 
Successive further modifications followed at intervals, gradually reducing the range of things 
to which it was applied, until at last for many years these were very limited, and finally the use 



1742. I03 

position of General Inspector of all the Lutheran congrega- 
tions in the Province is erroneous and misleading; as is also 
the representation that he thus broadly installed Bechtel in similar 
charge of all the Reformed congregations and called upon Boehm 
to subordinate himself to Bechtel. All that was done in this respect 
must be understood to apply merely to those that were willing to 
come under the Synod and adopt its principles. These organizations 
were of course ephemeral. The subsequent collapse of the scheme 
in consequence of the increasing assaults from without and elements 
of weakness and impracticability within; and the final waking up of 
the respective European authorities of these religions to the neces- 
sity of doing something substantial for their people in Pennsylvania, 
caused the permanent ecclesiastical development to take strictly 
denominational form. Thus, in its defeat, Zinzendorf's plan indirectly 
expedited the performance of the important duty they had neglected. 
He later said : "All the priests and levites in Europe were deaf to 

of the lot disappeared entirely from the system of government. Its application for many 
years to marriages in the Exclusive Church Settlements and in the case of persons officially 
serving as ministers and missionaries, arose under an overwrought system devised to carry 
out lofty ideals of a completely consecrated associate and individual life, under Christ 
the Head ; and of complete subjection to Divine guidance, believed to be given in 
every matter in response to simple faith and to be ascertained in this manner. This particu- 
lar application of the lot, after many years of growing dissent, was relaxed in 1818. After 
that, it was unknown in the American Church Settlements, and, in the course of the follow- 
ing years, ceased elsewhere. It was retained longest in connection with persons called to 
serve in the foreign mission field. Much popular misconception has prevailed in reference 
to this whole lot system, through lack of acquaintance with the principles and methods. 
Space cannot be taken here to explain these, beyond mentioning the extremely important 
fundamental principle of the system, that no official use of the lot by a board, involving a 
call, or proposition to any persons, ever bound the persons in question without their previous 
knowledge and consent. It bound the board, if affirmative, to extend the call or make the 
proposition, but not the person to acquiesce, except by previous understanding. The force 
of this principle in the matter of appointments to service and in the yet more important 
matter of marriages, is obvious. That persons were mated together for marriage by a board 
using the lot in connecting one's name with that of another, without their concurrence, in 
a kind of lottery, is a preposterous supposition. In view of the absurd representations and 
the fictions that have been circulated and believed about these matters, these explanations, 
which would be necessary somewhere in these pages, are here inserted once for all. It may 
be added, that in 1889, after the official use of the lot had for many years been restricted 
simply to the confirmation of certain particular elections and appointments, the General 
Synod of the Moravian Church abolished this remaining vestige and expunged all reference 
to the lot from its digest of principles and enactments, so that it was then obsolete in every 
particular. 



104 A HISTORY OF bItHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the cry of the Pennsylvania sufferer until their grudge against the 
Samaritan [himself] unstopped their ears." 

The Synod also came into touch with the work among the heathen 
which had been started by the Brethren in the West Indies, in Ber- 
bice, South America, and among the North American Indians. All 
of this work was to be fostered and supplied from Pennsylvania, as 
one of the departments of activity in which all elements of the Synod 
co-operated. This was the particular, but not exclusive, sphere of 
labor had in view for the Moravian Brethren. The West India work 
was personally represented at the last three general conferences by 
the missionaries George and Maria Elizabeth Weber and Gottlieb 
Israel, who arrived in Pennsylvania from St. Thomas just before 
Bishop Nitschmann sailed to visit that mission, and they remained 
until after his return. 

At the third conference — that in Oley — two of three deacons 
ordained "priests" (presbyters), Gottlob Buettner and Christian 
Henry Rauch — the third was Pyrlaeus — were had in view especially 
for missionary service among the Indians, in which Rauch had 
made a noble beginning in the Province of New York; and on that 
occasion his first three Indian converts, Shabash, Seim or Otabawane- 
men, and Kiop or Kiak, were baptized in John de Turck's barn, and 
named Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as patriarchs of the Indian church, 
and in token of belief in the descent of the aborigines of America 
from the lost tribes of Israel. 

Another department of activity instituted was school work for the 
hosts of neglected children. At the fourth conference it was decided 
to invite parents in the different townships, concerned for the wel- 
fare of their children, to meet for consultation, April 17, at the house 
of John Bechtel, in Germantown. Zinzendorf published this in the 
Manatawny neighborhood when he preached there, April i, and Bech- 
tel issued a printed circular, April 3. The appointed day was that 
just before the opening of the fifth conference. A few came from 
town, but none from the country, except such as were members of 
the Synod. In some quarters, poverty too great to provide suitable 
clothing for the children ; in other quarters, callousness and general 
apathy in such matters ; in yet others, the warnings sounded by those 
who would save the children from the peril of falling into the hands 
of the "Herrnhuters," worked together among the country folk as 
impediments to this well-meant and greatly needed effort. A school 
was opened, however, on May 4 in the Ashmead house in German- 



1742. I05 

town, with twenty-five girls in attendance, as a beginning. It com- 
bined instruction in reading and writing, manual employment in 
various ways, and religious instruction ; with, of course, the spiritual 
good of the children as the chief object. Thus Moravian school work 
in Pennsylvania had its beginning. This first attempt was made by 
Zinzendorf's daughter, the Countess Benigna, with Magdalena Miller 
— later married to the missionary John William Zander — and Anna 
Desmond — later the wife of the missionary John Hagen — as her 
assistants. Three men, Anton SeifFert, Zander and George Neisser 
were also connected with the enterprise in one way or another. This 
school was transferred to Bethlehem on June 28 and became the 
nucleus of the first school for girls there. At the sixth conference 
it was decided that another circular should be issued. This was done 
by Bechtel on June 5, inviting parents to another conference on the 
subject to be held at Bethlehem, June 24-25. It was accompanied 
by an official request from Zinzendorf to the justices in all the town- 
ships, to bring the invitation to the notice of all the most sensible 
Germans known to them in their respective jurisdictions. 

When the seventh conference opened in the house of Edward 
Evans in Philadelphia, an unusually large number of persons 
appeared, not only because it was the last such gathering for a sea- 
son, but because something out of the ordinary was expected. In 
the opening session Zinzendorf formally announced the arrival, on 
June 7 at Philadelphia, of the Bethlehem colonists who were anxiously 
awaited. This large accession to the settlement in the Forks of the 
Delaware, to the preparation for which allusion has been made sev- 
eral times in these pages, and which figured so prominently in con- 
nection with the regular organization of Bethlehem and the develop- 
ment of its first religious and industrial activities, calls for more 
notice at this juncture than an abrupt introduction upon its arrival 
in Philadelphia. It was the fifth and largest of successive companies, 
up to that time sent to other countries from Germany by the Breth- 
ren, in pursuance of the colonization policy inaugurated by Zinzen- 
dorf in 1734. The general purpose was, in view of their uncertain 
situation in Saxony, as stated in a previous chapter, to provide for 
the Moravian immigrants — for they preferred colonization to disper- 
sion; and to further his evangelistic plans by a method that would 
establish new centers to work out from, where there seemed to be 
a field, and where favorable terms were oiifered by governments, or 
could be secured. There is an interesting connection between these 



I06 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

successive colonies in that they all contributed eventually to the per- 
sonnel of Bethlehem at its regular organization. 

The first was that to the Island of St. Croix in 1734. The second 
was one to the Duchy of Holstein, the same year — abandoned in 
1736, on account of ecclesiastical and political difficulties, and trans- 
ferred in 1737 to the royal division of Holstein, where conditions 
seemed more favorable, and some of the first colonists, with others, 
founded Pilgerruh. The third was that to Georgia in 1735. The 
fourth was one to Holland, where, in the Barony of Ysselstein, the 
short-lived settlement of Heerendyk was established in 1736; some 
of the first company sent to Holstein furnishing part of the nucleus. 
Pilgerruh did not flourish, for some of the colonists were unsuitable 
persons, and complications in the matter of terms and conditions 
again appeared. An attempt to get the work properly established 
by recruits of reliable people on new terms in 1740 came to naught, 
and Pilgerruh was abandoned. Some of the new colonists destined 
for that place, with certain of the previous Holstein settlers, were 
then chosen for the Pennsylvania colony which was to join the rem- 
nant from Georgia, and the others who had followed them to Penn- 
sylvania, in establishing the first American center. Their number 
was to be augmented by selected persons from Germany and Switzer- 
land, and finally by a few from England. Thus the company was 
gradually formed. 

It was to consist mainly of young married couples and of single 
men ; and various professions, handicrafts and lines of experience in 
practical life were to be represented. Especially were they to be 
people of well-tested Christian character and of spiritual enthusiasm, 
who would be not only a salt among the people where they located, 
but all available, in some way, in the propagation of the gospel — dis- 
tinctly understood to be the main purpose for which the settlement 
was founded. The final selection of these colonists was completed 
in December, 1741. The rallying-place from which they started — at 
that time the most notable center of the Brethren in Europe — was 
Herrnhaag, a settlement in the Wetterau, in south-western Germany, 
founded in 1738 and abandoned at a perilous internal and external 
crisis in 1750. The name recalls a noble beginning, inspiring but 
then melancholy associations and a tragic end, opening and closing 
an epoch of unhealthy exuberance, when the Church let extravagant 
tendencies run to excess and gave its detractors a perpetual theme. 
They left Herrnhaag, December 19, 1741, and proceeded to Marien- 



1742- I07 

born, a neighboring old castle — originally a convent — in possession 
of the Church under lease, and for a number of years an important 
seat of activity. There they were joined by another contingent and 
had final interviews with the responsible heads, with the Countess 
Zinzendorf and with Spangenberg, who had been making arrange- 
ments in England for their voyage and had hastened over to Ger- 
many to give them important directions. He returned to England 
in advance of them. The whole company set out from Marienborn, 
December 20, for Holland. 

There were twenty-two married people — twelve men and ten 
women — and nineteen single men. Two of the latter only accom- 
panied them to the sea-board. They traveled in seven bands, each 
having its leader and constituting a mess in fare and quarters. Their 
first considerable halt was at the settlement Heerendyk, in Holland, 
where the last squad arrived, January 4, and the future Superintendent 
of the single men, who had come another way, joined them. From 
there they started two days later for Rotterdam, where on February 
9 they boarded the English sloop, the Samud and James, which, after 
a tedious and uncomfortable sail, landed them at London on Satur- 
day morning, February 24. English friends escorted them to their 
lodgings in Little Wild Street, where they were quartered in groups 
of six and seven, in several adjacent houses. 

On February 26, at a memorable meeting in the Moravian chapel 
in Fetter Lane, presided over by Spangenberg, at which about three 
hundred persons were assembled, the colony was temporarily organ- 
ized for the voyage under the name Seegtmeine — Sea Congregation, or 
Ship Congregation or Ocean Church. Peter Boehler, who had been 
doing important work in England since he left America a year before, 
and had shortly before this been married and appointed with his wife, 
an English woman, Elizabeth Hopson, to accompany this colony to 
Pennsylvania, now joined them, with six married couples and four 
single men from England. George Piesch, a son-in-law of Father 
Nitschmann of Bethlehem, and one of the three men sent to Suri- 
nam in 1735, who had latterly been one of Spangenberg's chief assist- 
ants in England, was called to be their general conductor on the 
voyage. The colony, thus completed, consisted of fifty-six persons, 
besides Piesch — sixteen married couples, two married men without 
their wives, and twenty-two single men. Under the special organi- 
zation, as an ocean church, Boehler was chaplain, with two assistants 
in spiritual oversight among the married people, and one for the 



I08 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

single men ; while his wife was the general spiritual counselor for 
the women. His chief assistant was the Rev. Paul Daniel Bryzelius, 
a Swede, and a theological graduate of the University of Upsala, 
who had entered into connection with the Brethren, and was selected 
to labor in the Lutheran department of their American work. He 
was an unstable man who later forsook them, when the Lutheran 
Church was regularly organized in Pennsylvania, and eventually went 
over to the Anglican Church. Other offices to which various persons 
were appointed for the voyage were those of general monitor, to 
watch over the observance of regulations, both among the married 
people and the single men; steward and general dispenser; nurses 
and cook. Prayer-bands were also formed to maintain the custom 
of "hourly intercession" day and night, which was instituted at Herrn- 
hut in 1727, after the manner of the Acoemctae — the praying watchers 
of the fifth century, mentioned in the letters of Theodoret. 

At the conclusion of that memorable meeting of February 26' 
Spangenberg drew attention to the watchword for that day, in the 
collection of daily texts, and based an impressive closing address on 
it. The passage was from Esther 4:16, "If I perish, I perish." In 
addition to the common hazards of ocean travel, which were then 
greater than in modern times, peculiar perils awaited them, because 
the Atlantic was infested with privateers, by which Spain and France 
were harrassing England in those times of war. Many of these 
crews were made up of pirates, hardened in all cruelties and vil- 
lainies. The colony, moreover, was going to sail, not under convoy, 
but alone and without any defenses on board. 

Their ship was an English vessel of the build and rig known as a 
"snow" or "snaw," and was called the Catlwrine." She had been pur- 
chased for £600 and specially fitted up to transport this colony. Cap- 

8 Some writers give February 27 as the date of this organization of the Sea Congregation. 
This is an error. 

9 The Catherine was registered in the name of George Stonehouse of Buttermeer, in the 
County of Wilts, formerly Vicar of IsUngton, for a time in association with the Brethren. 
and an officer of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, founded by them in 1741. 
He was a man of property, and his wife, wlio became a regular member of the Moravian 
Church, and rendered it valuable service, was possessed of large means. She furnished the 
money to purchase the vessel At Philadelphia the Catherine was sold by Samuel Powell, 
agent, under power of attorney from Stonehouse to Boehler. The subsequent fate of this 
snow is not known. Out of the proceeds of the sale, the Society for the Furtherance of the 
Gospel, organized in Pennsylvania by Spangenberg in 1745, received ^(^300, in accordance 
with provision in the letter of instruction sent to Boehler by Stonehouse. 



1742. 109 

tain Thomas Gladman, a man of much experience and adventure on 
the sea, who had been in the employ of George Whitefield and had 
navigated his sloop which conveyed Boehler and the last Georgia 
colonists from Savannah to Pennsylvania in 1740, and at this time 
was intimately associated with the Brethren in England, took com- 
mand of the vessel, with a mate, a boatswain and six sailors. 

On Friday, March 16, the vessel left the dock and slowly moved 
down the Thames. She lay at Gravesend over Sunday. Spangen- 
berg and his wife, who had accompanied the colonists that far, took 
final leave of them on Monday morning, March 19, and then the 
Catherim, with her ocean church and its conductor — fifty-seven breth- 
ren and sisters — together with the captain and crew, sixty-six souls, 
on board, sailed off into the channel. Passing out of sight of land 
finally on March 23, she was headed nearly southward, as it was 
deemed advisable to take a far southerly course. April 7, they 
reached the Island of Madeira and put into the harbor of Funchal. 
The novel sight of tropical verdure was enjoyed; a cloister, contain- 
ing a shrine constructed of skulls and bones, was visited by some who 
went ashore, and the state of the ignorant people under the rule of 
the Padres was deplored ; various articles of provision were taken 
aboard; empty water casks were filled; and on April 10, in the midst 
of great excitement and tumult in the harbor, caused by the approach 
of two suspicious looking large vessels which at first refused to be 
interrogated from the English men-of-war there lying, the little 
Catherine, unobserved by any, in the hubbub, lifted anchor, set sail 
and quietly proceeded on her way. Several severe storms were 
weathered and imminent peril from privateers was more than once 
encountered, but the hand that rules the wind and waves, and foils the 
designs of men, when those in question have a further destiny to fulfill, 
was held over the light and defenseless bark, and no evil befell her. 

With all possible regularity the discipline and round of services 
required under the organization that had been instituted were main- 
tained, as if they were settled ashore. Good health ; good habits ; 
cheerful, contented hearts ; wholesome and abundant food and good 
cooking; a Christian captain and orderly respectful sailors; were 
conditions which, under the Divine blessing, combined to render the 
voyage vastly different from the common experience of emigrant 
ships in those times. During the days on the ocean, Boehler took occa- 
sion to give the colonists much valuable information on the topogra- 
phy, history, population and the political and ecclesiastical peculiarities 



no A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the country for which they were bound ; about the experiences and 
situation of those who had preceded them to Pennsylvania ; the 
beginnings in the Forks of the Delaware ; the varying attitude of 
different classes in the Provinces towards the Brethren and their 
undertakings ; and other instructions that would serve to prepare them 
for their new life, surroundings and duties. The German members 
of the colony endeavored to learn all the English they could from 
their English brethren, and many leisure hours were occupied in 
adding to their stock of information from books with which they were 
supplied. 

With a single exception, they were all people who had enjoyed at 
least some slight school advantages, and besides Boehler and 
Bryzelius, who were university men, there were a few of considerable 
general education. Some also made use of their handicrafts during 
the voyage to enable all to land, well supplied with clothing and shoes 
in good condition ; and others took turns at various duties about the 
ship, in view of the small crew she carried. 

After occasional soundings for several days, in the midst of almost 
continuous fog, they had their first glimpse of land — the Long Island 
coast — on May i8. After much precarious effort in waters unfamiliar 
to the captain, and piloted part of the remaining way by another 
vessel, the captain of which proved to have been a Sabbatarian of 
Pennsylvania, quite familiar with the neighborhood of Herrnhaag and 
Marienborn, they put in at New London, Conn., on May 23. There, 
at sunrise the next morning, several of the men placed a shrouded 
infant form into a rude coffin, lowered it into a boat, rowed ashore 
with it and laid it in a grave in the sand which they marked with a 
stone ; while sisters on board tenderly nursed and comforted the 
mother. This death of the child of Michael and Johanna Maria 
Miksch, born May 19, was the only sad incident of the voyage. 

At New London some repairs had to be made to the Catherine, and 
on May 26, eighteen single men and six married men of the colony, 
in accordance with arrangements made, boarded the sloop of the 
Sabbatarian captain, to proceed in advance to New York. John Philip 
Meurer who has left an interesting diary of the journey from 
Herrnhaag to Philadelphia, was one of these. Therefore the incidents 
of the remaining journey to New York which are on record, relate to 
the company on board this sloop. At New Haven their arrival created 
consternation at first, for the people were in constant dread of Spanish 
privateers prowling along the coast, and were, just then, excited by the 



1742. Ill 

report of the capture of fifteen English vessels not far away. Their 
fears were soon allayed. Students of Yale College escorted these 
"Moravians" to their buildings, where they produced one of the 
controversial publications issued by those clerics who were so zealous 
to save the world from the hand of Zinzendorf. At New Greenwich 
another panic was caused by the appearance of this foreign vessel 
with so many men on board ; and even when they explained who they 
were, some people were afraid to sell them bread and milk. 

On May 30, seven of the party who were Englishmen went ashore 
near New Greenwich and traveled the remaining distance to New 
York afoot, to escape the danger of being impressed by a British war 
ship, in the high-handed fashion followed under stress of the times. 
The Germans were not subject to this. Later that day, the sloop 
anchored at New York, and, to the astonishment of those on board, 
the Catherine was there ahead of them. The repairs at New London 
were finished sooner than had been expected and the snow made 
a quicker run to New York than the sloop, arriving there on the 
morning of May 30. 

Before the close of that day, the entire colony ; those who remained 
on the Catherine, the seventeen who reached New York on the sloop, 
and the seven who had gone ashore, were reunited on board their 
own vessel. 

While they lay at New York, some members of Boehler's former 
association there, with many other friends, went aboard to greet him 
and welcome the colony ; and not a little sensation was created in 
other quarters by their arrival, as all manner of wild rumors circulated 
about this new lot of alleged conspirators against the King and the 
Protestant religion, in regard to whom their vigilant pastors had so 
solemnly warned the people. Sundry Germans of the city went aboard 
to scrutinize the members of this ocean church, and expressed their 
surprise at the difference between them, in the matter of bodily 
condition and spirits, and their poor countrymen who landed from 
common crowded emigrant ships, after a voyage of privation, sickness 
and cruelty at the hands of brutal sea captains, whose main purpose 
was to make all the money they could by selling ofif their pauper 
cargoes as "redemptioners" for their passage money. 

Once more the sails were unfurled on May 31, for the final stage of 
the journey to Philadelphia. This last stage was a trying and critical 
one. The captain took the inside course close to shore, preferring 
the peril of reefs and sand banks to that of privateers outside. Fog 



112 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and adverse wind prevailed nearly all the way, and they crept along, 
continually casting the lead, in order not to run upon unex- 
pected shoals. The coast was unfamiliar to the captain and they had 
no pilot. Therefore they lay to of nights. On June 4, they rounded 
Cape May and sailed up into the mouth of the Delaware River. Then 
the captain took on a pilot. At night a terrific storm burst upon 
them. An accident broke the cable and they lost their anchor. That 
night, when so near their journey's end, they were in greater peril 
than at any time on the voyage. One diarist says that "the prince of 
the power of the air once more tried what he might yet do to them." 
The next day, after fishing many hours for the lost cable and anchor, 
they found them more than a mile from where the vessel lay. Boehler, 
meanwhile, was set ashore and proceeded afoot to Philadelphia to 
announce their arrival. The following day they proceeded up the 
channel of the river, the width of which one journal compares to that 
of the Rhine. Thursday, June 7, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, they 
reached the city. Pyrlaeus, Buettner and Ranch rowed out to the 
Catharine to welcome them. "Many people came aboard, thinking 
that we were for sale," says Meurer in his journal, and then notes what 
he had learned about the traffic in "redemptioners" — 50 to jo£ paid 
the captains as a release for one and another, then bound three to five 
years to work it out; "some being treated well and others ill." He 
adds: "A ship from England lay alongside of us with young Irish 
people, men and women, for sale." Those who were on the look-out 
for profitable "servants" were disappointed when they boarded the 
Catherine and inspected the likely men and women on her deck, for 
they were not "for sale." It can be assumed as certain that not a man 
or woman who belonged to the Brethren's Church in Europe ever 
landed in America as a redemptioner. On the other hand, there 
were cases in which the Brethren furnished money to release other 
persons who were under such indenture, to dehver them from bonds 
that were inflicting spiritual or bodily injury upon them. Some such 
became faithful members of the Church, as well as worthy citizens, 
and were the ancestors of highly-respected families who could honor 
their character and energy rather than regard their poverty and dis- 
advantage as a stigma. Generally speaking, it merits admiration 
that so many, even when deceived and imposed upon by avaricious 
men who by misrepresentation led them into the toils of that bad 
system, were neither crushed in spirit nor brutalized by it ; but had 
the manhood and womanhood to rise superior to the draw-backs of 



1742. 113 

their beginning in Penns}-lvania, and prove themselves worthy of a 
place among its substantial and respectable Christian j'eomanrj'. 

It was Ascension Daj', according to the old calendar, when the 
"Sea Congregation" reached Philadelphia, and Zinzendorf was preach- 
ing in the Lutheran meeting-house. After the service he went aboard 
to greet them. The next day the German members of the colony 
went with their captain to the State House to go through the form 
of qualification under the laws of the Province. The Governor and 
Council were in session and the matter was soon disposed of. When 
the preliminary explanations had been made and the oath of allegi- 
ance read to them, Boehler stated their scruples about taking an 
oath and their readiness, nevertheless, to be held fully amenable and 
subject to the same penalty as violators of an oath, if found trans- 
gressing in any particular. They were then required to repeat a 
form of affirmation, and sign the customary two documents, one for 
the crown and the other for the proprietary government. There- 
upon they were dismissed. A few busily occupied days followed. 
Their arrival attracted much attention. They came into contact with 
warm-hearted friends, with inquisitive gossips and with men of preju- 
diced and sinister mind. Their interest was awakened by the sight 
of Indians, soon after they landed. Zinzendorf took one particular 
Indian aboard the Catherim to see them before they had transferred 
their quarters from the ship. M^urer tells of him in his journal as one 
who "had been thoroughly converted," whose name was Johannes. This 
was none other than that most distinguished of all the Indian con- 
verts of the Moravian Church, whom Ranch had baptized the pre- 
vious April, and named John — Wasamapah, who had been called Job 
by the traders ; which name, found in some early reports phonetically 
spelled as pronounced by the German tongue untrained to English, 
was mistaken for an Indian name, was so put into print, and gave 
rise to the absurdity, since perpetuated, of calling him Tschoop. 

The married people of the colony left the ship on June 8. The single 
men continued to have their quarters on board until Whitsunday, 
June 17, when, having gotten all of their effects into a ware-house, 
thev also took final leave of the Catherine. Meanwhile, on Sunday, 
June 10, at a meeting of the whole company in Zinzendorf's house, 
they were given many new instructions and directions, in view of 
important steps soon to follow. On that day the whole company 
attended services in the Lutheran meeting-house in Philadelphia, and 
in the Reformed church in Germantown. At the former place, Zin- 
9 



114 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

zendorf preached the last sermon to the Lutherans before leaving 
Philadelphia to engage in other activities; at the latter, they took 
communion with the congregation. At the interview had with them 
on that day Zinzendorf asked them each to write a personal state- 
ment of faith and spiritual experience, to be presented with their 
application for admission to the Pennsylvania Synod. These were 
in readiness for consideration and action, together with a complete 
register of the members of this colony and of all others counted as 
connected with the Brethren in Pennsylvania prior to their arrival, 
when they were formally announced by Zinzendorf, as already stated, 
in the opening session of the Synod on June 13. When the question 
of their admission in a body, as representatives of a Church now seek- 
ing recognition as having a formal existence in Pennsylvania, came 
up, these personal communications were, for the most part, read to 
the Synod. The conductor of the colony, George Piesch, appeared 
and vouched for the good character of all of them, and for their com- 
mendable conduct during the voyage. This terminated his ofificial 
responsibility in connection with them, and he returned to Europe 
soon after. Boehler, as spiritual overseer on the voyage, with 
two men who had been his assistants under their temporary organi- 
zation as an ocean church, were also present and confirmed the tes- 
timony of Piesch. The names of all who were regarded at that time 
as composing the whole body of people in Pennsylvania belonging 
to the Association of the Brethren and to be connected with its first 
organized center at Bethlehem — where the Moravian Church within 
the Association, as explained in the preceding pages, was now to 
have a recognized footing among the religions of Pennsylvania — 
were then read in the Synod. The record states that the number was 
a hundred and twenty.^" 

10 No copy of the list is extant, but at least 107 of the names can be verified beyond ques- 
tion. Besides the Sea Congregation of 56 and the 40 in Pennsylvania, December 1 74 1, 
(Chap. IV, note 10) the missionaries Ranch and Hagen, now with them, Abraham Buenin- 
ger who came with Hagen from Georgia in February, the West India missionaries Weber 
and wife and Israel, the printer Henry Miller and Ranch's four baptized Indians were un- 
doubtedly included. The remaining 13 were from among the following accessions of Penn- 
sylvania people, some of whom were at this time only candidates and were formally admitted 
to the communion after organization at Bethlehem : four baptized by Zinzendorf at German- 
town — Herman and Anna Maria Bonn, March 19 ; Elizabeth and Johanna Leinbach, May 
17; Daniel Oesterlein, the first single man admitted at Germantown ; Jacob Delwciler 
(Dudweiler) who went as a missionary to the West Indies ; Magdalena Miller and Margaret 
Disman (Desmond) already mentioned ; Elizabeth Braun of Tulpehocken ; Magdalena 



1742. 115 

Their admission to membership in the Synod was decided by a 
formal vote, and then all who were awaiting the result were escorted 
into the hall. After prayer by a trustee of the Synod, Henry Antes 
addressed them in the name of this body. The official record reads : 
"Henry Antes testified in the name of all, that the undenominational 
(unpartheyische) Synod of Pennsylvania recognized, in general, the 
arriving old Moravian Church as a true Church of the Lamb ; in par- 
ticular, its ministers as brethren and fellow-laborers ; but, in accord- 
ance with the fundamental rules of the Synod, on the other hand, the 
Church, in itself, as independent, and, within its own limits and regu- 
lations, with which the Synod never meddled, as inviolate ; and wished 
that the grace of the Lamb might rule over them."^^ 

Wend of Germantown; Esther Robins, a Quakeress, married at Bethlehem to Froehlich 
and baptized with the additional name Mary ; Judith, Mary and Susan Benezet who, with 
their father, were formally admitted as communicants at Bethlehem in September. Thomas 
Hardie, mentioned in a preceding chapter, was also in fellowship with the Brethren at Beth- 
lehem at this time. A certain Valentine, one Buerger and Adam Hinter, "servants" 
(Knechte) among the Bethlehem population in June, were, like Detweiler, redemptioners 
released by the Brethren. Some others, whose formal reception to communicant membership 
occurred later in the year, may possibly have been enrolled as such prospective members. 
In the absence of a list, it cannot therefore be ascertained with certainty which 13 out of 
this group of persons were counted in the 120 on June 13. The mistake of giving 120 as 
the membership of the Sea Congregation has often appeared in print, and is even made in 
several historical sketches of Bethlehem prepared for anniversary occasions and preserved 
in the archives. This was evidently caused, in the first instance, by inexact language in the 
original printed report of this seventh Synod. It is stated that after the arrival of the Sea 
Congregation had been announced, "the names of the brethren and sisters who were to begin 
the Church settlement at Bethlehem were again read, 120 in number." Then the report 
adds : " When, after ascertaining the opinion of all the members present, the Trustees and 
Bro. Henry Antes granted them admission, they all entered the room together, and presented 
themselves before the Trustees." Thus the words "they all" could be taken as referring at 
the same time to the 120 just mentioned and to the newly arrived colonists who did enter in 
a body. Some of the others may have joined them in this formality, but it is certain that not 
all of the 120 were there. It may be added that some former Georgia colonists included 
became alienated separatists and did not resume connection with the Church. Cranz, Briider 
Historie, § loi, states the matter correctly — "they (the Sea Congregation) together with the 
brethren and sisters previously there, 120 in all." 

II This translation of the exact words is given because of the persistent distortion to 
which they have been subjected by unfriendly writers. A recent historian, referring to the 
arrival of "a shipload of 120 Moravian emigrants destined for Bethlehem," and to their 
joining the Synod as "completing the supremacy of the Moravians in the movement," has 
this : " Antes too was now quite carried away, and declared in this conference that the 
Synod acknowledged the Moravians as the true church, thus committing the Congregation 
of God in the Spirit to the Moravians." Such a perversion of meaning is not surprising 



Il6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Zinzendorf, as Moderator of the Synod, made an address to them, 
in keeping with the occasion, and, in the absence of Bishop Nitsch- 
mann, Anton Seiffert, the first Moravian ordained in America, 
responded to the welcome in behalf of the Moravian Church, and 
then offered prayer. After these formaHties the Synod had a less 
pubHc session in Zinzendorf's dwelling, at which an account of the 
organization and voyage of the Sea Congregation was given, and 
various reports of evangelistic activity in Europe were read. In the 
afternoon the Synod assembled to a lovefeast provided by the Sea 
Congregation on board the Catherine. There were a hundred and 
twenty persons present — a singular coincidence with the number 
announced in the morning as composing the Brethren's Church in 
Pennsylvania. The closing session of June 14 was held in the Lvith- 
eran meeting-house in the evening. Zinzendorf set forth, in an elab- 
orate discourse, the distinction between three church-conceptions : 
the Church of God in the Spirit, consisting of the true children of 
God among all bodies, in a fellowship independent of their bounds 
and differences; the religions or general confessional divisions, with 
the kind of unity in faith and fellowship to be fostered on this basis ; 
and special organized smaller churches of genuine Christians within 
the religions, to represent the invisible spiritual body in a visible 
model. This latter conception is that which he subsequently sought 
to unfold and exemplify in exclusive church settlements — Ortsge- 
meinen. At the conclusion of this session, announcement was made 
that the Synod would resolve itself into a quarterly conference of 
ministers, to assemble at different places, as has been noted in 
another connection. A syllabus of communications from represen- 
tatives of the several religions in the Sjmod, relating to their general 
state and attitude towards each other and towards the whole, had 
been formulated. Their leading thoughts were blended in a general 
letter to the Christian public of Pennsylvania. This was adopted, 
and Henrv Antes, who had issued the circular calling the first con- 



when found in pasquils issuing from the heat and dust of the anti-Zinzendorf campaign. Init 
is hardly to be expected in the pages of sober history now. "T/u' true church'' means a 
very different thing from "^ true church." One may recognize a church other than his 
own as a true church, without admitting it to be //ti' true church, which would exclude his 
own. The statement meant that in origin, evangelical faith and spirit, and external requi- 
sites, the Moravian Church was now formally recognized as a true church among churches, 
not a schismatic faction, or heretical sect, or incoherent conflux. It is not necessary to mis- 
represent in order to emphasize disapproval. 



1742. 117 

ference, was appointed to sign this closing address to the people at 
large. This he did in the presence of the deputies the next morning, 
June 15. This act, and the signing of the journal by appointed 
witnesses concluded the proceedings, and the members dispersed. 

This final document was issued as "the letter of the ministers of 
the Church of Jesus Christ in Pennsylvania to the whole country." 
Its opening salutation was : "Beloved Pennsylvania." It closed with 
this sentence: "These are the words of the Church of the Lord to all 
its members, hidden and known, and all whom the Lord our God 
will yet call to it. Lord have mercy upon Zion, for the time is 
come." (Ps. 102:13.) I" the body of the letter occur three passages 
that have been even more misinterpreted and distorted than the 
words of Antes in welcoming the Moravian Church to representation 
in the Synod. The first is the following: "Today at last a visible 
church of the Lord has been seen and recognized in Philadelphia. 
Every member of the same has accredited it as such before us. Its 
seat for the time-being is Bethlehem. The little groups in Phila- 
delphia, Germantown, Oley, Frederick Township, who wait for the 
redemption of Israel, have entered into the most cordial union with 
them." This refers to the Sea Congregation. It is called a visible 
church of the Lord in the sense of the third church-conception 
presented by Zinzendorf in his discourse referred to above, and 
the intimation that it was the first such in Philadelphia means that 
it was the first that embodied those characteristics that were had 
in mind by the Synod as marking such a congregation. The second 
passage so much misinterpreted is this : "We, all together, make up 
the body of Jesus, in Pennsylvania." Some writers have treated of 
this as if it were a claim made by the Moravian Church. The statement 
emanated from the Synod, as representing the Church of God in the 
Spirit, in the sense of the first church-conception set forth in Zin- 
zendorf's address. Its members belonged to the various religions 
and the Synod had before spoken of it as "His body, the fullness 
of Him that filleth all in all." The third of these much perverted 
passages is that which closes the following paragraph : "We will, 
according to the wisdom that the Lord will vouchsafe, continue this 
church conference every quarter year in all quietness. Our members, 
all outwardly called and inwardly known in the Spirit, will render 
assistance. Whoso is on the Lord's side, let him come unto us." 
(Ex. 32 -.26.) Only by the most willful distortion of these words, 
can thev be taken as an utterance of the Moravian Church, or a 



Il8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

call to follow the new colony to Bethlehem. It was simply the 
closing appeal of the Synod to sincere and earnest people throughout 
Pennsylvania to join the alliance, support the Synod and co-operate in 
the furtherance of its objects. 

Noble ideals were advanced in these attempts, but the time was 
not ripe for their successful propagation at large, even in generally 
affecting the tone and manner of denominational relations. What 
was intended to be an irenicon, intensified bitterness and contention 
in many quarters. -The combination of disadvantages was too strong 
to be overcome, even if the prevailing spirit of the time had not been 
so utterly at variance with any such movement. The personal 
adversaries of Zinzendorf left no means untried to thwart his efforts. 
Many persons were unable to comprehend what he was aiming at. 
Others were unwilling to believe in the sincerity of his motives. 
Certain oddities of disposition, manner and speech on his part, 
made the whole undertaking seem a mere oddity to many matter- 
of-fact men who looked on from the outside, so that it did not appeal 
to them. Some looked upon him as a kind of knight-errant, even 
calling him a Don Quixote, in religious adventure. There were 
also defects of far-fetched plan and over-wrought method, with 
an almost kaleidoscopic presentation of ideas and views precipitated 
from his teeming store. The finesse of the astute diplomate — for this 
was among his qualities by nature and training — withdrawn from the 
service of an earthly king and consecrated to that of his heavenly King, 
presumed too much in expecting that every subtile line of thought 
and action, clear to him, would be equally clear to crude, unschooled 
commoners ; especially with designing persons on the alert to set 
everything he said or did in a sinister light before the unsophisticated. 
But the effort stands as a grand testimony against that unholy strife 
of schools and parties which had become the mania of the doctors, 
as well as of wild sectarians and perverse separatists, to the disgrace 
of Protestantism and the injury of religion. It stands also as a 
prophecy of better conditions slowly developing in these times, when 
those who fondly cherish the old feuds can no longer make the war 
of creeds and sects popular. 

Before further movements at Bethlehem are followed, a list of the members of 
the Sea Congregation, now conspicuous in the foreground, given in alphabetical 
order, with a few brief personal notes, may bring this chapter to a close. 



1742. 119 

MARRIED PEOPLE. 

Almers, Henry and Anna Rosina, m.n. Schuepge. They served at Beth- 
lehem until January, 1743, then located as evangelists and teachers on Staten Island 
and Long Island, laboring there mainly until April, 1745, when they returned to 
Europe with Boehler. 

BiscHOFF (Bishop), John David and Catherine, m.n. Pech. They were 
among the important early evangelists, serving in the Indian mission and in country 
charges, besides performing various duties at Bethlehem. Bischoff was ordained • 
in 1749, was transferred to North Carolina in 1756 and died there, at Bethania, in 
1763. His wife died at Bethlehem in 177S. 

Boehler, Peter and Elizabeth, m.n. Hopson. From 1737 to 1764, whenhe 
returned finally to Europe to become a member of the general executive board of 
the Church, Boehler gave four terms of service to the work in America, and, next to 
Spangenberg, was the most eminent leader. He became a bishop in 1748. He died 
at London, April 27, 1775. His grave is in the old Moravian cemetery in Chelsea. 
His son, Lewis Frederick, was also a minister of the Church in America, and died 
at Bethlehem in 181 5. His grand-daughter, Fredericka Boehler, who died at Beth- 
lehem in 1859, was his last descendant. Rev. Francis Boehler, in Pennsylvania^ 
1752 to his death at Lititz, Pa., in 1806, was his brother. An extended sketch of 
the career of Bishop Peter Boehler is given in Volume II, Transactions, Moravian 
Historical Society, znA^ Life of Peter Boehler, by Rev. J. P. Lockwood, (Wes- 
leyan,) was published in London in 1868. 

Brandmiller, John. From Basle, commonly designated "bookkeeper" in early 
records, was also a printer, like others of the name at Basle. He made the first 
attempts at printing in the Forks of the Delaware in 1763-67 at Friedensthal, near 
Nazareth. Several of his imprints yet extant are great rarities. (See Pa. Mag. of 
Hist, and Biogr., VI, 249.) He was ordained, 1745, snd did faithful service at 
various stations. His wife, Anna Maria, came to Pennsylvania in 1743 and died at 
Bethlehem in 1776. He met an accidental death at Bethlehem in 1777. 

Brucker, John and Mary Barbara. He was ordained at New York, 1743, 
by Zinzendorf just before his return to Europe. He entered missionary service. May 
1743, in the Danish West Indies, where this, his first wife died, November follow- 
ing, and where, with intervals of furlough, he figured as one of the chief mission- 
aries until his death there in 1765. 

Bryzelius, Paul Daniel and Regina Dorothea, m.n. Schilling. Gen- 
eral facts concerning him have appeared in the text. He was considered in deacon's 
orders as a Lutheran candidate and was ordained a presbyter in 1743. To 1745 he 
was an assistant minister at Bethlehem at intervals and itinerated. His chief field was 
among the Swedes in New Jersey. He left the Church in 1760. Their daughter, 
Anna Regina, was the first child born at Bethlehem — July 16, 1742 — and was 
baptized the same day by Zinzendorf. 

Harten, George and Elizabeth, m.n. Eichmann. They were employed 
in various capacities at Bethlehem and, for a season, in charge of externals in con- 
nection with school work at Tulpehocken and elsewhere. Records of their later 
career are not at hand. 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



DIE 

Tagliche n 

LOOSUNGEN 

DER 

Bfuder-Gemeine 

FUR DAS JAHR 

17 7. 



» 



Gcdrukt bey Bethlehem in der Fork Dellawat. 
Bey Johann Brandmiiller, MSCCIXVU. 



1742- 121 

HussEY, Robert and Martha, m.n. Wilkes. An English farmer who did 
faithful service in the common interests. He accompanied the evangelist Schnell on 
a tour afoot to Georgia in 1743, snd in 1749 was appointed to the charge of the 
agricultural affairs of the school at Oley. He also served as a lay-evangelist. He 
died, 1775, at Bethlehem. His wife died there, 1790. 

Meyer, John Adolph. He was physician of the colony and the first regular, 
accredited physician in the Lehigh Valley. His father, under whom he studied, had 
been a physician, a university graduate. He served Bethlehem and surrounding 
region the first years in his profession, as well as in spiritual labor, being in deacon's 
orders. He was ordained a presbyter in 1748. He was the first warden at Naza- 
reth, 1744-46. Then he was stationed at the school and home mission on the farm 
of Antes at Fredericktown till 1749. Leaving church service for a while, he lived 
in Philadelphia. He located eventually at Lititz, where he practiced his profession 
during the Revolution, and where he died. His wife, Mary Dorothea, sailed from 
London with Neubert and others who followed the Sea Congregation and reached 
Philadelphia in September. She died on the voyage and was buried at sea. 

MiKSCH, Michael and Johanna Maria, m.n. Kuehn. He was a Moravian 
from Kunwald, was with Grassman and Schneider in the missionary attempt among 
the Samoyedes on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, 1737. He rendered efficient service 
in the external work at Bethlehem, Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoni, Nazareth and 
Gnadenthal, and accompanied itinerants on many journeys. His wife and he died 
at Gnadenthal, she in 1786 and he in 1792. They were the parents of the child 
born on the voyage, died and buried at New London, May 24. 

Powell, Samuel and Martha. He was a brazier and bell-founder from 
Whitechurch, Shropshire, England. He rendered varied and valuable service to the 
Church in Philadelphia, at Bethlehem and at the Indian Mission, Gnadenhuetten on 
the Mahoni, in external matters. He cast the bell for the mission chapel at Gnaden- 
huetten in 1747. He was landlord of the Crown Inn south of the Lehigh at Beth- 
lehem, October 1745 — May 1746, and there had charge of a general book depository 
opened by the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel. After this term of ser- 
vice he returned to Philadelphia, where he died 1762. 

Powell, Joseph and Martha, m.n. Pritchett. He was a brother of 
Samuel and hailed from the same place. He itinerated some years as a lay-evange- 
list in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland and was ordained, 1756. 
In 1759 he and his wife with John Levering and wife, went to Jamaica, W. I., as 
missionaries. Returning after six years they served in Maryland until 1772. His 
wife died at Bethlehem, 1774. Fmally, after a few months of home missionary 
work in New York and Connecticut, he died, 1774. at the station Sichem, in Duchess 
Co., N. Y. The monument to his memory and that of Bruce, the missionary, has 
been mentioned in Chap. III. 

Rice, Owen and Elizabeth. He was from Haverfordwest, Wales. He did 
conspicuous service as an itinerant in English parts of Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, 
New York, the New England colonies, and as English preacher in Philadelphia 
and at Bethlehem. During intervals of residence there, as well as elsewhere, he com- 
bined the practice of medicine and minor surgery, as assistant to the regular physi- 



122 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

cian, with his labor in the gospel, having acquired considerable experience and 
skill in this respect. He was ordained in 1748 and was the first settled Moravian 
pastor in New York City, 1750-54. In 1754 he returned to Europe and served 
numerous congregations in England and Ireland, until his death, at Gomersal in 
Yorkshire, in 1785. 

Sensemann, Henry Joachim and Anna Catherine, m.n. Ludwig. A 
baker by trade, he first served the settlement in this and various other capacities, and 
was the first time-keeper and bell ringer. 1743, he and his wife entered missionary 
service among the Indians, and in 1755 were serving as stewards at Gnadenhuetten 
on the Mahoni, when savages destroyed the mission and she was one of those who 
perished. In 1766 he and his second wife, Christina, m.n. Rubel, entered the mis- 
sion service on the Island of Jamaica, W. I. He was ordained in 1749. He died 
in consequence of a fall from the piazza of the mission-house at Carmel, Jamaica 
in 1774. Gottlob Senseman the missionary to the Indians who died at Fairfield, 
Canada, in 1800, was his son. 

Tanneberger, Michael and Anna Rosina. They were among the Mora- 
vians of the colony. He was a shoemaker and served the Bethlehem community at 
his trade, and inother secular employments, until his death, in 1744. His widow was 
married to John George Endter and went with him as missionary to the Arawacks 
of Guiana, South America. Her third husband was Jonas Nilsen. 

Turner, John and Elizabeth. He hailed from London. She was a native of 
Wales. They were employed in connection with the second school opened by the 
Brethren in Germantown in 1746 in the house of John Bechtel. There they both 
died in 1749, he in April and she in May. 

Wahnert, David and Mary Elizabeth. He was cook for the Sea Con- 
gregation, and was famous as the faithful attendant of a number of subsequent 
colonists on the voyage across the ocean. His wife died in 1751 and he was mar- 
ried in 1753 to the widow Rosina Pfahl, m.n. Hiickel. He died at Herrnhut in 1765. 

Yarrell, Thomas and Ann, m.n. Hopson. They were English members of 
the colony and returned to England in 1766. He was ordained in 1755 after serving 
some years as a lay-evangelist. He was stationed as minister in Newport, R. I.> 
and New York City. Later he served various congregations in England and Scot- 
land. 

single men. 
Andrew. One of the first converts in St. Thomas, commonly spoken of as 
"Andrew the Negro," {Andreas der Mohr). He accompanied Zinzendorf from 
St. Thomas to Europe in 1739, and was brought to Pennsylvania to labor among 
negroes as a witness of the power of the gospel. At Bethlehem he was married 
to Mary Magdalene, vice-eldress of the negro congregation in St. Thomas, brought 
to Pennsylvania by the missionary Loehans in November, 1742. He and his wife 
went to Europe with Zinzendorf in 1743. In 1744 he died at Marienborn. He 
figures among the 18 "first fruits" of Moravian missions from various nations 
who had entered into rest in 1747, depicted in a painting executed that year by order 
of Zinzendorf and known as "the picture of the first fruits" {das Erstlingibild). It 



1742. 123 

is preserved at Herrnhut, and reduced copies in oil are at Zeist, Holland, and in 
the archives at Bethlehem. Another negro, Andrew, also spoken of as "Andreas 
der Mohr " is sometimes confused with him. This Andrew, No. 2, was presented 
by Thomas Noble, of New York, to Spangenberg, was baptized at Bethlehem in 

1746, was married to Magdalena, alias Beula, formerly belonging to Charles Brock- 
den of Philadelphia. They died at Bethlehem; he, 1779, she, 1820. 

Endter, John George. In 1745, married the widow of Michael Tanneberger 
and went as missionary to the Arawacks of Berbice, Guiana, South America. 

Gambold, Hector. Later called Ernest, from Wales, was married, 1743, to 
Eleanor Gregg, of New York, was ordained in 1755, labored in the ministry in 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, was the first settled Moravian pastor on 
Staten Island in 1763, and died at Bethlehem in 1788. His son John Gambold 
was one of the pioneers in the Cherokee mission. 

Heydecker, John George. Entered the itinerant service in Pennsylvania and 
died in Falkner's Swamp in September, 1742. He was the first one of the colony 
who died. His remains were interred at Bethlehem. 

Heyne, John Christopher. Was employed in school work at several places in 
Pennsylvania. He married Margaret Schaeffer, of Tulpehocken. He also served 
as an assistant minister under license at intervals. He and his wife severed con- 
nection with Bethlehem in November, 1750, and removed to Tulpehocken. 

Huber, John Michael. Was appointed an assistant elder at Bethlehem under 
the primitive organization, married the widow Catherine Rose (Chapter III, note 5), 
started alone to St. Thomas as assistant missionary in 1747, and perished at sea. 

Kaske, George. Married Elizabeth Funck of Pennsylvania, went as missionary 
to Berbice, South America, in 1745, was ordained while back in Bethlehem in 

1747, left the mission under political oppression in 1752 and returned to Pennsyl- 
vania. He died at Nazareth in 1795. 

Lischy, John Jacob. Of Swiss Reformed connection, married Mary Benezet of 
Philadelphia, itinerated over a large area among the German Reformed population, 
having been ordained in 1743 by Bishop Nitschmann. He broke with the Brethren 
in 1747, became their bitter enemy, issued two publications against them abound- 
ing in slanderous misrepresentations, was admitted to the ministry of the Reformed 
Church from which he was eventually deposed for irregularities, and died on his 
farm in York County, Pa., in 1781. 

Meurer, John Philip. The diarist of the Sea Congregation, entered evange- 
listic service, was ordained in December, 1742, served at different country stations, 
married (1744) Christina Krafft who died in 1757 and was buried in the church-yard 
used by the Brethren in Donegal Township, Lancaster County, where the inscription 
on her gravestone was one of the last of that period legible. Meurer died at 
Bethlehem in 1760. 

Moeller, Joseph. A gardener, at which occupation he served many years at 
Bethlehem and at Nazareth and Gnadenthal. He married Catherine Koch in 1745. 
They both died at Bethlehem, he in 1778 and she in 1798. 



124 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Okely, John. From Bedford, England. He married Johanna Robins of Phila- 
delphia in 1743, and, as his second wife, Elizabeth Home of New York in 1745. He 
engaged in itinerant ministry in parts of Pennsylvania and was ordained in 1751. 
He is best known as scrivener and conveyancer at Bethlehem, figuring for a num- 
ber of years in much public business. He was commissioned a Justice of the 
Peace in 1774, and, for a while, was an Assistant Commissary in the s-ervice of the 
Continental Army in the Revolution. Estrangement with the authorities at Beth- 
lehem, on account of official procedures on his part detrimental to the interests of 
the Church, led to his withdrawal with his third wife. Margaret, widow of Matthew 
Graeff, of Lancaster, to whom he was married in 1780. He died in Lancaster 
County in 1792. 

Okely, William. Ship carpenter and sailor, a brother of John, remained in 
Pennsylvania until 1748, when, under Capt. Garrison, he was one of the crew of the 
church ship, Ireite, on her first voyage to Europe. After six years in this service- 
doing duty in the line of his trade at Bethlehem, during sojourns here at intervals- 
he returned to Europe m 1754. 

Post, Christian Frederick. A Prussian and originally a joiner by trade, was 
the well known, indefatigable, somewhat eccentric missionary to the Indians, whose 
peculiarly important services to the government of Pennsylvania in treating with 
the western Indians, at a most critical juncture in 1758, made his name celebrated 
in the history of the Province. He was also with the company that made the 
luckless first attempt to start a mission in Labrador in 1752, when those not mur- 
dered had to leave to help man the vessel. In 1761 he undertook the first mission 
in the Tuscarawas Valley, Ohio, and the following year initiated John Heckewelder 
into that work. In 1764 he went to the Moskito Coast to start an independent 
mission, and, after two protracted sojourns there — visiting Bethlehem in 1767 — he 
located in Germantown, Pa., in 1784. His final labors were under the auspices of 
the Protestant Episcopal clergy. He died at Germantown in 1785, and was there 
buried in the "Lower Graveyard," where, about 1840, a marble slab with an in- 
scription reciting his career was placed upon his grave. He was thrice married. 
His first two wives were Indian women; his idea being that this would facilitate his 
efforts. He was never ordained in the Moravian Church. 

Pezold, John Gottlieb. Was one of the most devoted and valuable men of 
his time, both in evangelistic activity and in official counsel. From 1 742-1 753 he was 
general superintendent of the work of the single men in America. He was 
ordained in 1748. Returning to Europe in 1753, he brought over a colony of single 
men in 1754. After that he was chaplain and spiritual overseer of the Single 
Brethren's House at Bethlehem. His principal evangelistic efforts in the Ma- 
guntsche neighborhood laid the foundation of the Moravian Church at Emmaus. 
While on an official visit to Lititz, he died there in 1762. 

RONNER, John Reinhold. Was ordained in 1 743, married Elizabeth Fissler, of 
Philadelphia, labored in many places in Pennsylvania up to 1750, when he went 
with his wife to St. Thomas, W. I., as missionary. In 1755 they returned to Beth- 
lehem where he died in 1756. His wife, after further years of service as a deacon- 
ess, mainly in New York, died at Bethlehem in 1771. 



1742. 125 

Schneider, George. One of the native Moravians of the colony, was employed 
for a while in itinerant service and particularly in the external affairs of several schools. 
He married Gertrude Peterson, of Long Island, in 1746. In subsequent years he 
was connected with the agricultural interests at Nazareth and Bethlehem. He died 
in 1774 and his wife in 1803, both at Bethlehem. 

ScHNELL, Leonard. Labored as an itinerant lay-evangelist in various neighbor- 
hoods, besides engaging in various duties at Bethlehem from time to time, until 1748, 
when he was ordained to the regular ministry. In 175 1 he severed his connection with 
the Brethren and then ministered some time to the Lutherans in the Maguntsche 
and Saucon neighborhoods. One of his notable exploits was an evangelistic tour 
afoot to Georgia in 1743. 

Seidel, Nathanael. The most important man among these Single Brethren. 
He was the son of a Bohemian emigrant in Silesia and therefore in close affinity with 
the native Moravians. During the early years of his career in Pennsylvania he was 
one of the most zealous and untiring itinerants among whites and Indians, and the 
many long journeys he made afoot were remarkable. He later made perilous and 
exhausting journeys to the West Indies and Surinam. He was ordained a deacon 
before he came to Pennsylvania, a presbyter in 1748 and a bishop in 1758. He 
was the successor of Bishop Spangenberg in general superintendence of Moravian 
work in America in which position he stood until his death. He was also one of 
the succession of nominal proprietors of all the estates of the Church under the 
authorities at Bethlehem. His wife, whom he married in 1760, was a daughter of 
George Piesch, conductor of the Sea Congregation — Anna Johanna Piesch, a grand- 
daughter of Father Nitschmann. Bishop Seidel died at Bethlehem in 1782. A 
full sketch of his career is given in Vol. II, Transactions of the Moravian Histor- 
ical Society. His widow died at Nazareth. 

Shaw, Joseph. One of the English members, who was to have studied for the 
Church but was obliged by ill-health to abandon it. He served as teacher first 
among the Indians, and then at Walpack and Dansbury in the Minisinks among 
white settlers, doing evangelistic work there also, 1745-47. There his first wife, 
Mary Jones, of Philadelphia, died. Having been ordained in August, 1747, Shaw, 
with his second wife, Mary Heap, of Philadelphia, started with Huber for St. 
Thomas to enter missionary service, and with him they were lost at sea in October. 

Werner, Christian. Was employed as sick-nurse in schools, at farm-work, 
and as a care-taker and watchman about the church premises at Bethlehem. He 
married Anna Maria Brandner who with Neubert and others followed the Sea Con- 
gregation to Pennsylvania in September, 1742. He died at Bethlehem in 17S3. 
His wife preceded him in 1760. 

Wiesner, George. Returned with Zinzendorf to Europe in 1743 as an atten- 
dant on the voyage. 

Wittke, Matthew. Was employed mainly in agricultural work at the stations 
on the Barony of Nazareth and at Friedensthal. He and Wiesner seem to have been 
the only two members of the colony who figured as " illiterate " to the extent of 
having to " make their mark " in lieu of writing their names, in the State House at 
Philadelphia, when they arrived. 



126 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

It may be added that, under the system of the time, all of those who served as 
itinerants, or were stationed for brief periods at different places, were employed at 
Bethlehem during intervals, at various duties, some in laboring at their trades 
others at whatever work was most pressing, from time to time, and that they were 
able to do. 

Adolph Meyer, Joachim Sensemann and Daniel Neubert, who was to come with 
them, but first arrived in September, were among the people connected with the 
Holstein attempts and with Heerendyk in Holland. 

Of the following members of this colony, descendants of the name are known, 
living at Bethlehem or elsewhere : David Bishop, Michael Miksch, Owen Rice, 
Joachim Sensemann, Joseph Moeller. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Fkom the Organization to the Return of Spangenberg. 
1742—1744- 

On June 15, after the adjournment of the Pennsylvania Synod, 
Anton Seiffert, with several of the new-comers who were carpenters, 
hurried off to Bethlehem to help Father Nitschmann and his few 
assistants complete the necessary work at the Community House. 
On Whit-Sunday, June 17, the colony assembled in Germantown at 
a lovefeast in the house of the clock-maker Endt, where the first 
"Conference of Religions" had been held. It was occupied at this 
time by Gotthard Demuth and Augustine Neisser who had worked at 
his trade with Endt. 

On Whit-Monday, thirty-five of them started together for the 
Forks. Boehler and his wife, with all of the English members of 
the colony, and Bryzelius and his wife, remained temporarily' in Phil- 
adelphia, where Boehler took the place of Pyrlaeus who went along 
to Bethlehem. That company reached Skippack in the evening and 
remained there over night. At four o'clock the next morning they 
were again on the way to Falkner's Swamp. When they reached 
the home of Henry Antes they were greatly fatigued, especially the 
women, being unused to such exertion after so many weeks on ship- 
board, and the weather being very warm. Antes provided wagons 
to convey the women and several of the less able-bodied men over 
the next stage of the journey to Joseph Mueller's in the Great Swamp, 
where they arrived in the course of the day on the 20th, and were 
overtaken by the wagon from Philadelphia with their heavy luggage. 
They made an early start from Mueller's on the 21st and at half-past 
ten o'clock the first detachment, the single men with one of the 
wagons, reached Bethlehem. The wife of Bishop Nitschmann was 
given a place on the wagon with the luggage. Hymns of thanksgiving 
were sung while they crossed the Lehigh, and Count Zinzendorf, who 



128 A HISTORV OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

with several other persons had preceded them on horseback, welcomed 
them on the other side of the stream. The rest of the colony arrived 
at noon. A bountiful meal was in readiness, and with grateful hearts, 
almost forgetting their weariness under the exhilaration of the hour, 
they enjoyed the first hospitality of the House of Bread. 

The next day was devoted simply to bodily rest. The proceedings 
connected with their establishment at the place, the opening of the 
new' epoch and the first organization of the people for communal 
life and for religious and secular activity, began on the 23d. It was 
Saturday, and was observed as a Gemeintag} 

The day must have been fully occupied with the various meetings, 
of which there were seven. Count Zinzendorf presided at all of them. 
The first was the consecration of their place of worship in the Com- 
munity House. In his dedicatory prayer the Count prayed "that 
the congregation there gathered might be a blessing to the country 
and that their place of prayer might be the Saviour's dwelling-place 
where His devoted people would go in and out." For nine years that 
impretentious chapel on the second floor of the Community House 
was the place of worship and general assembly-room of the settle- 
ment. There, not only numerous hours of earnest prayer, by people 
whose lives were devoted to great efforts in the cause of Christ, and 
precious occasions of spiritual fellowship, refreshment and edification 
were passed, but many important deliberations on enterprises that 
extended to many regions of the country and even across the seas 
were held ; councils with deputations of Indians from various quarters 
took place, and one after another red man and woman of the forest 
rescued from heathenism and won by the love of Jesus, was baptized 
into His death. Its hallowed associations deserve to be perpetuated 
by some fit use of the place. 

At the second service a sermon was preached by Zinzendorf. At 
the third, Gottlieb Haberecht, who had repented of his defection to 
the Ephrata brotherhood, and Matthias Seybold, who had likewise 
repented of his temporary indifiference to covenant obligations, were 
formally restored to full fellowship. At the fourth gathering of the 
day, Zinzendorf addressed the people in reference to the object of 
founding Bethlehem as a missionary center; explaining that it was 
not to be a place for persons to locate in at ease, as some inhabitants 
of Herrnhut erroneously thought of that place. He also gave them 



■ On Gemeintag^ see note under Chapter IV. 



1/42 1744- 129 

an exposition of the various church-types presented in the Seven 
Churches of Asia, (Rev. 2, 3). The fifth session was devoted to a 
general review of the work of the Brethren in all places, up to that 
time, a retrospect of the seven Pennsylvania Synods, and an eluci- 
dation of all the varied general and special offices in the Church, as 
then instituted. At the sixth session, correspondence and reports 
from missionaries in many places were read, and one of the women 
who had been taken into church fellowship from Pennsylvania, was 
confirmed. The seventh service was evening prayer which closed 
the day. 

The next day, June 24, was Trinity Sunday, according to the old 
English calendar. There was preaching at ten o'clock by Andrew 
Eschenbach, to which, as on all occasions of public preaching from the 
beginning, any people from near or far who chose to come were 
welcomed. Later in the day, a general council of all the people was 
held, at which the first steps were taken in a definite organization. 
A primary division of the hundred and twenty persons announced on 
June 13, was made into two large companies. One was called the 
pilgrim or itinerant congregation ; the other the home or local con- 
gregation — Pilgergemeine and Haiisgemcine. Eighty persons were 
actually present, according to lists preserved. The selection of 
persons for one or the other division was made, in some cases in 
accordance with their expressed preference, in other cases by lot, 
at their request. 

Those in the first division were to devote themselves to evan- 
gelistic work among Indians and white people, adults and children, 
according to arrangements to be made from time to time. The others 
were to "tarry by the stuiif" (I Sam. 30:24). They were to develop 
the material resources, erect buildings, provide sustenance for the 
"pilgrims," care for their necessities as they went and came; and, 
at the same time, spiritually keep the fire burning on the home altar. 
Subsequently, transfers were often made from one division to the 
other, as circumstances required. Many would be among the pil- 
grims for a season and then a while with the home congregation. 
All were expected, during their sojourn at Bethlehem, to lend a hand 
at any necessary work they could do. The pilgrims were classified 
under designations in which Zinzendorf revealed a fondness for 
striking novelties, like those which appear in some quite modern 
systems of religious activity. Thus, in the further organization of 



130 A HISTORV OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

their work, one corps were the "Fishers" (Matt. 4:19), a kind of 
"look-out committee" traversing different neighborhoods to seek 
places in need of attention, note open doors and get into personal 
touch with people. Another corps making periodical tours together, 
visiting from house to house in circuits, received the name, "the 
Pennsylvania Wheel," in allusion to Ezekiel i : 15,20, — also "the Penn- 
sylvania Chariot," (Acts 8:26-39). 

Special itineraries were mapped out for these corps which they 
were to complete in a fixed time, after which they were to return and 
report. When places opened for more localized work, permanently 
or for protracted seasons, two further classes of laborers were organ- 
ized among those who were regular ministers, or at least were best 
qualified for public speaking. Those of one class had an assigned 
circuit. The others settled at one place, concentrating their effort. 
They were spoken of as the "traveling preachers" and the "stationed 
preachers" — Landprediger and die auf Posten. 

Those who were to do missionary work, among the Indians were 
selected from time to time, with a view to their fitness in various 
respects for this particular work. Those who were to devote their 
special attention to the children were likewise carefully selected. As 
arrangements were perfected, a superintendent of each of these 
departments was appointed and he was called the Elder of that corps 
of workers. Thus, in connection with the work among the Indians, 
the office of Hcidcnacltcstcr was instituted. Elder of the Work among 
the Heathen. Over the children's department stood two Kindcreltcrn 
— parents. This developed system was only germinal in the arrange- 
ments made at first, on June 24. 

At that general meeting on Trinity Sunday there was a thorough 
discussion of the question what course to pursue, both as a principle 
and as a matter of expediency, in reference to the observance of 
the First Day and the Seventh Day. 

The Sabbath question, in this sense, was a more conspicuous one 
among the religionists of the country, both German and English, at 
that time, than is now commonly known. Some Sabbatarians merely 
maintained that the Divine command in reference to the seventh 
day could not properly be ignored or transferred to the first day, and 
therefore kept Saturday holy, but did not obtrude their disregard 
of the first day. Others, more fanatical, like the extreme wing of 
the Ephrata fraternity, took pains to desecrate Sunday, and even 
reviled its observance, as having a heathen origin, and applied 



1742 1744 131 

opprobrious epithets to it. The terms used for the two days, in 
connection with these deliberations were Sabbath (seventh day) and 
the Lord's Day (first day). There was no discussion in reference to 
observing the Lord's Day or not. This was taken for granted, in 
accordance with general Christian tradition and the law of the 
Province. The question was whether to observe also Saturday as 
Sabbath, and in what manner, and what distinction to make between 
the character and significance of the two. 

Saturday, as the Sabbath, was distinguished as a day of rest and 
spiritual communion — Ruhe und Bcttag. Sunday, as the Lord's Day, 
was to be the day for preaching, public worship and instruction — 
Lehrtag. As a matter of principle, two general considerations weighed 
in favor of such an observance of Saturday. One was that rest of 
body and mind on the seventh day kept the Divine example and 
ordinance sacred, which were older than the Mosaic law. It was 
argued therefore that they could thus be applied to man and beast 
without any thought of Old Testament legalism. It should be 
observed by them therefore, not as Jews or Judaizers, but as human 
beings ; not obeying a command, but using a benefit conferred. When 
the objection was raised that sacrifices were also older than the 
Mosaic law, the answer was that there was a wide difference between 
sacrifices and the Sabbath. Sacrifices had been done away with in 
the sacrifice of Jesus, the supreme anti-type, whereas the anti-type of 
the Sabbath is the future sabbatical state, the rest that remaineth to 
the people of God, yet to be consummated and yet looked forward 
to by Christians. 

The other general consideration, commending Saturday as a day 
of communion and prayer, was the fact that the body of Christ rested 
in the tomb over the Sabbath, and that all who are buried with Him 
by baptism into death may on that day suitably cherish the com- 
munion of saints in the church that waiteth for Him and in that 
which is around Him ; keeping fellowship in spirit at the tomb where 
his flesh rested in hope. Therefore on this day of rest and prayer, 
the observance of Gcmeintag, and the celebration of the Holy Com- 
munion had been established before in Europe. 

Viewed from the stand-point of expediency, two special consider- 
ations were advanced in favor of such an observance of the seventh 
day. One was the position of the Sabbatarian sects. They would 
be deprived of "the monopoly of a certain righteousness in which 
they boasted," and would be conciliated by this degree of respect 



132 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

for their ideas. The other was the fanciful notion that, if it appeared 
that the Indians really were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, 
it might be necessary to lead them back to their ancestral religion, 
in its main features, and out of that to the gospel. Therefore, it 
would be suitable to restore the Sabbath. The distinctive Old Testa- 
ment covenant rite corresponding to the New Testament baptism was 
also alluded to. These far-fetched ideas were, however, not applied 
in the method of evangelizing the Indians. - 

The lingering regard for the ancient Sabbath, in the consciousness 
of Christendom, was held to be evident in the half holiday observed 
in schools, and the common disposition to stop working earlier on 
Saturday than on other days ; as well as in the strict Puritan practice 
of transferring Mosaic ideas to Sunday, but making their observance 
begin at sunset, Saturday. It was remarked that the Sabbath was 
gradually discarded in Christendom, in breaking with the externals 
of Judaism, and became obsolete through the difficulty found in 
sparing two days each week from common employment. In this 
connection, the practical question was raised whether the material 
interests of the settlement would permit such a Saturday rest. Seififert, 
the Elder, was asked for an opinion, and it was decided that matters 
could be so adjusted and regulated. It was therefore concluded to 
observe Saturday, as proposed, not instead of, but together with 
Sunday. Communion was to be celebrated on Saturday, but, for 
various reasons, Gemcintag sessions would be held on Sunday. Later, 
Communion was, however, also transfered to Sunday, as a rule. 

As to the idea to be attached to Sunday, as the Lord's Day, it was 
pointed out that the primitive Christians observed it, while they yet 
kept the seventh as the Sabbath — in honor of the Resurrection of 
Christ. Therefore Sunday was to be regarded primarily as a festival 
in commemoration of the Resurrection, by having the various 
meetings for indoctrination, and the public services with general 
preaching of the gospel on that day; but without insisting on trans- 
ferring the Sabbath-conception to Sunday. Two general reasons for 
keeping the Lord's Day holy were set forth. One was due honor 
to Him who rose the third day and due recognition of the resurrection 

2 A scheme of a method to approach the Indians, sketched by Zinzendorf in twenty-five 
brief paragraphs in a logical order of progress, was adopted as the general plan, and is an 
interesting study. It is found in the BiieJiugschc Samntluiigcn, Volume III, pp. 90-91, and 
bears the title Methodus der Wildcn Bekehrung — Method of converting the savages. 



1742 1744- 133 

as the triumphant completion of the atonement, with which all the 
articles of Christian faith stand or fall. The other was due obedience 
to the civil law which commands cessation of work, and regard for 
common Christian sentiment which venerates the Lord's Day as the 
holy day of the week. 

In putting these discriminating ideas into practice in the religious 
and social life of Bethlehem, difficulty was experienced later in two 
respects. Some, not clear on the rationale of the plan, were disposed 
to follow the Sabbatarians in substituting Saturday for Sunday as 
the one holy day. Others, less devout and conscientious, used the 
liberty the law permitted on Saturday, but then, abusing the principle 
laid down that Sunday was not to be viewed as the Mosaic Sabbath, 
violated the civil law, gave offence to puritanical neighbors, and 
caused the impression that the Brethren were Sabbatarians. Such 
infractions were peremptorily dealt with by the village authorities. 
It may be added that after a few years this double holy day became 
impracticable and entire cessation of labor on Saturday was not main- 
tained. 

At the meeting on June 24 the idea was broached of building cabins 
at half-mile intervals along the road to Nazareth, to be occupied for 
a season by persons who were to go out into the Indian country as 
missionaries. This was to induct them into the isolated life they 
would have to lead. It would, at the same time, increase the number 
of domiciles for the temporary use of resting itinerants, and would 
be a step towards the close connection between Bethlehem and Naza- 
reth that was in contemplation. Some such cabins were subsequently 
built at different spots for make-shift use, but not on the road to 
Nazareth. 

On Monday, June 25, Count Zinzendorf and his daughter, with 
several other persons, visited the spot where the settlement had 
been commenced on the Barony of Nazareth, remaining most of the 
day. On that occasion, as it seems, he had an interview with Captain 
John and the Indians of Welagameka who were yet there, demon- 
strating how possession was nine points of the law. Subsequent pro- 
ceedings showed that, whatever efforts he may have made with the 
redoubtable captain, they were fruitless. Meanwhile George Neisser, 
Secretary, with his assistants, was getting the written work of those 
days, classified lists of names and the like, into shape for the final 
meeting of that evening. 



134 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 







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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



All the eighty persons^ present at these important proceedings 
assembled in the evening, and engaged in one of those services of 
song — Singstundcu — which Zinzendorf had made so popular. On this 
occasion the first organization was completed and the arrangements, 
so far as they were perfected, put into operation. Certain local 



3 Mention of persons at Bethlehem, June 25, 1742, found at different places in the records 
show slight discrepancies. In some cases names are included of individuals who did not 
arrive until several days later. In others, persons are mentioned who certainly were not 
there. Very careful examination leads to the conclusion that the following list is probably 

accurate : 

MARRIED PEOPLE. 



Aimers, Henry and Rosina. 
Bischoff, John David and Anna Catherine. 
Brandmiller, John. 
Brucker, John and Mary Barbara 
Demuth, Gotthard and Regina. 
Harten, George and Elizabeth. 
Meinung, Abraham and Judith. 
Meyer, lohn Adolph. 
Miksch, Michael and Johanna Maria. 
— Nitschmann, Rosina. 

Senseman, Henry and Anna Catherine. 
Seybold, Matthias and Anna Maria. 
Tanneberger, Michael and Anna Rosina. 
Wahnert, David and Mary Elizabeth. 
Weber, George and Mary Elizabeth. 
Zeisberger, David and Rosina. 
Zinzendorf, Nicholas Lewis. 



SINGLE MEN. 
Andrew, the Negro. 
Boehner, John. 
Bruce, David. 
Bueninger, Abraham. 
Detweiler, Jacob. 
Endter, John George. 
Eschenbach, Andrew. 
Haberecht, Gottlieb. 
Hagen, John. 
Hardie, Thomas. 
Heydecker, George. 
Heyne, John Christopher. 
Huber, John Michael. 
Israel, Christian Gottlieb. 
John, Wasamapa (Indian). 
Lischy, John Jacob. 
Meurer, John Philip. 



Moeller, Joseph. 
Mueller, John. 
Neisser, George. 
Oesterlein, Daniel. 
Pezold, John Gottlieb. 
Post, Christian Frederick. 
Pyrlaeus, John Christopher. 
Rauch, Christian Henry. 
Ronner, John Reinhold. 
Schnell, Leonard. 
Seidel, Nathanael. 
Seiffert, Anton. 
Werner, Christian. 
Wiesner, George. 
Wittke, Matthew. 
Zander, John William. 
Zeisberger, David, Jr. 



( Somer.s, Benjamin. 

\ James, 

Valentine, ) 

.Guerge, p^'-vants. 

SINGLE WOMEN. 
Braun, Elizabeth. 
Benezet, Judith. 
Benezet, Mary. 
Benezet, Susan. 
Disman, Anna Margaret. 
Hummel, Johanna. 
Magdalena, Negro girl. 
Miller, Johanna Magdalena 
Nitschmann, Anna. 
Robins, Esther. 
Wend, Mary Magdalena. 
Zinzendorf, Benigna. 



1742 1744- 137 

officials were announced and the various bands, or classes into which 
the population was divided — each with a leader — for the cultivation 
of intimate fellowship and for mutual, spiritual helpfulness, were read. 
There were eight such classes for the home congregation and eleven 
for the itinerants. Among the eight, were two of married couples, 
one of widowers and married men whose wives were not with them, 
one of women thus alone and four of single men. Among the 
itinerants there were one of married couples, one of married men 
alone, five of single men and four of single women. Zinzendorf — his 
wife not being present — placed himself in a class with Brandmiller, 
Adolph Meyer and the Indian John Wasamapah ("Tschoop") who 
were similarly situated, together with Father Nitschmann who was a 
widower. In connection with that evening service Zinzendorf 
preached a sermon on the watchword for that day — the anniversary 
of the presentation of the confession of Augsburg, June 25, 1530 — 
"Strong is thy dwelling place and thou puttest they nest in a rock," 
Numbers 24:21. It was rich in suggestive meaning for the new 
settlement in connection with the day on which its organization was 
consummated, and which eventually became fixed as the anniversary 
day of Bethlehem. 

The first distinct section of the period now under review is that 
from the organization of the settlement to the departure of Count 
Zinzendorf for Europe. Those were months of enthusiastic and, in 
some features, confused activity. All was at a formative stage. Many 
arrangements were temporary and subject to change, as circumstances 
required, from week to week. Much in the organization of govern- 
ment and work, was only tentative. No fixed model was being 
followed, for the situation was unique and required the origination of 
plans and methods. With all this, Zinzendorf's independence of 
ecclesiastical conventionality, propensity to experiment with novelties 
in method, and his adaptation of many local plans to the frequent 
changes he made in general plans, helped to keep things in flux. 
Much was wanting, in external appointments, to carry out the ideas 
in mind for the place. In the communal arrangements, fine ideals 
of religious, social and industrial order struggled for the mastery 
with the difficulties of a large company of people massed in two 
rough unfinished buildings which would seem hardly adequate for 
dpe fourth the number, in the actual dwelling-room they afforded. 

Around them were primitive back-woods conditions, quite new to 
bv far the most of them, to which thev needed first to be trained. 



138 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Under these circumstances, a discipline almost military had to prevail 
in many respects, in order to meet the practical difficulties of the case 
and preserve the standard of general morals that had been set. The 
ideas and purposes of the enterprise made it a different task from 
that of ordinary beginnings of the kind. All the diversified operations 
carried on at many points, moreover, were so inseparable from the 
life and order of Bethlehem, that it is impossible to treat the latter 
apart from them. 

Hardly anything in the scenes of those months was without relation 
to what was going on at many another place. The main matters to 
be noticed in sketching that .time can be best presented, not by 
following the course of things chronologically as they occurred, for 
this would require a substantial reproduction of diaries and official 
minutes, which would be only a jumble of facts, but by classifying 
these matters somewhat and thus reviewing them. 

The general organization and offices embodied a few rudimental 
ideas which, with all the changes of form and name in subsequent 
years, lay at the roots of the elaborate system that was eventually 
established. The patriarchal idea of the Eldership was attached to 
the control of things. The name Elder was used for both the 
executive and pastoral head. There was an Elder of the whole congre- 
gation and one for each of its several divisions. Women were chosen 
as general and special Eldresses of the female membership. But, at 
the same time, the principle of conferential government and collegiate 
administration, with both ordained and unordained men and also 
women participating, was established. The various deliberative and 
administrative bodies were called conferences. 

The word Helper was associated with Elder in connection with 
such bodies, and the term Helpers' Conference came into vogue. 
Along with these terms the German words Vorstehcr and Dicner were 
brought into use from the beginning. They corresponded, in the 
application made them, to the English terms Warden and Steward. 
The boards in charge of this class of duties were composed of men 
and women jointly. Thus arose, in the course of that summer a 
Diencr-Collcgium — a board of stewards with a I'orstchcr or Warden 
at the head, along with the Helper's-Conference, having the Elder of 
the congregation at the head. 

These rudiments of organization have survived to modern times 
both in the general government of the Brethren's Churcli and in the 
organization of its single settlements and congregations. Herein 



1742 1744- 139 

the precedent of Herrnhut was followed. A peculiar office, which 
existed in Europe, in connection with the whole and with each congre- 
gation, was that to which Zinzendorf gave the name Charnicr. This 
was introduced at Bethlehem, in elaborating the original organization. 
It consisted in a quiet, general watching and direction of all arrange- 
ments and activities, both spiritual and external, by persons who 
made themselves specially familiar with all principles and regulations. 
They were subordinate officiaHy to the Elder, but were at liberty to 
admonish every board, functionary and private person. Zinzendorf 
called it "the most necessary and indispensable office" under the con- 
ditions then existing; "the key to keep the clock running." David 
Bishop and his wife were the first who were entrusted with this 
office at Bethlehem, and all, from Anton SeifTert, the Elder of the 
congregation, and Father Nitschmann, the General Superintendent 
of external work, down to the stable boys and scullions were supposed 
to take it kindly, if reminded of a defect by them. 

A later office, then spoken of as desirable, but not at once insti- 
tuted, was that called Gcmeinrichter. It was to compensate for the 
absence of a local civil magistrate and police. Henry Antes, after 
he located at Bethlehem several years later, became the first Gemein- 
richter. A Richter Collegium was developed, out of which finally arose 
the Aufscher Collegium — Board of Supervisors — which existed until 
the middle of the nineteenth century at Bethlehem, as in European 
church settlements. Although the appointment of such an official 
was deferred, the great desirability of a proper acquaintance with the 
civil law, and with their rights and duties under it, was realized; 
especially as some confusion existed from the start about the juris- 
diction of the several nearest Justices of the Peace — Nathaniel Irish, 
on the Saucon Creek, was the nearest Justice — and conflicting orders 
which they seem to have received about matters from several quarters. 
Therefore it was decided in September to procure a copy of the laws 
of the Province which George Neisser, secretary and scrivener, was 
to study carefully, in order to be their counsellor-at-law. 

On the fourth of July a Sacristan was appointed. The first such 
functionary was John Brandmiller. With him was associated a corps 
of men and women to perform various duties about the place of 
worship. They were called Saaldiencr instead of KircJiendiener — Sac- 
ristan — as commonly in German ; because, in those days, the place of 
worship among the Brethren was spoken of as the Saal — hall, and in 
English, chapel, instead of Kirche — church. This gave rise later to 



140 A HISTOKV OF UETHl.EHKM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the custom among- English Moravians, when the absurdly literal ren- 
dering of German terms into English was in vogT.ie. of calling the 
Sacristans "chapel-servants :" while at Bethlehem, in the days of Ger- 
man and English amalgamation, the barbarism "Dicticrs" came into 
use. This department of ser\nce was elaborated by adding a corps 
of persons to do duty in the common refectory — the Tisihdiciwr. and 
another to act as cicerones — the Ftrtihicndiaia: These latter were 
made very necessary by the ill-mannered freedom with which all 
kinds of persons entered and strolled about the apartments, prying 
into everything. 

Eight men and seven women were appointed in July as nurses, 
under the direction of the physician of the settlement. Dr. .Adolph 
Meyer, who org-anized them for systematic duty. He employed cer- 
tain of them as assistants in the dispensary and at collecting medicinal 
herbs and roots for his primitive pharmacy in the Community House, 
July 15, the first systematic postal arrangements were org-anized. with 
George Neisser as first postmaster; Pyrlaeus in Philadelphia and 
Antes in Frederick Township, having charge at the other ends. The 
first four postilions were Abraham Bueninger. John Philip Meurer, 
George Schneider and Andrew the X"egro. Their stopping-places 
were to be Benezet's in Philadelphia, Henry Holstein's in Falkner's 
Swamp and Bechtel's in Germantown : and weekly tours were 
arranged. Later in the year another class of messengers called 
Londbotcii were appointed, to \'isit the districts and stations where 
evangelists labored, and bring stated reports to Bethlehem, In con- 
nection with the oversight of this branch of ser\-ice and keeping lists 
and records of the personnel in all local and itinerant departments, 
along with the diary of current events, Neisser was also authorized 
to prepare and keep in order a complete catalog-\ie of the congre- 
g-ation. local and itinerant, Super\-isors and foremen were appointed 
over the different sets of hands employed at the various industries, 
and there were responsible custodians of the different classes of 
materials, supplies, implements and tools. The herding of the cattle, 
carrying- water from the spring for household use and other such 
lighter duties were committed to infirm men and to boys, with some 
one in charge of each such department. 

The established daily routine left nobody unemployed at any time, 
unless sick, except during the hours of necessary sleep: and the 
cspiit dc corps assiduously cultivated, proceeded from the central idea 
of doing evervthing as a service to the Lord. It is significant that 



1742 1744- HI 

one of the first features of the daily order estabHshed — only two days 
after the organization — was the division of the entire congregation 
into prayer-bands, to maintain the ''hourly intercession" that had 
been introduced in Herrnhut in 1727, referred to in the preceding 
chapter, in connection with the regulations of the Sea Congregation. 
These were the ninetepn classes of June 25, thus specially organized 
for prayer-turns. The hours extended from five o'clock in the morn- 
ing to midnight, and all took their assigned turns, from Count Zin- 
zendorf to Andrew the Negro. From midnight to five o'clock, the 
night-watch — a man in the chapel, a woman in the women's dormi- 
tory and another man outside, patrolling the premises — did duty, 
watching and praying. They called out the hours until the bell, 
procured July i and hung July 6 to a tree near the house, was used 
for this purpose. Joachim Senseman was the first time-keeper and 
bell-ringer. Saturday nights the watch was kept by one of the bands 
organized on June 25. This was called Bandcmvache. They closed 
the watch on Sunday morning by going out to the newly-opened 
graveyard and singing a hymn in commemoration of the Resurrec- 
tion. Returning, they sang morning hymns at the dormitory doors, 
and finally engaged in prayer together in the chapel, opening thus 
the day's round of devotions. This, and other such highly-wrought 
religious arrangements, characteristic of the first fervor of the new 
organization, were only temporary. 

The first thing each day was general morning prayer after rising, 
and the last thing before retiring at night was evening prayer. This 
usually took the form of a song-service. The hours for devotions, 
meals and labor were announced by the time-keeper. The labor to 
be performed each day was determined the preceding day, and the 
work apportioned. Announcements of all kinds for the succeeding 
day were made at each evening meal, so far as they concerned all 
■ in common. Naturally, the eating and sleeping arrangements, the 
management of the culinary department, and other such features of 
the domestic economy, were subjected to minute and rigid regula- 
tions, to maintain, in such crowded quarters, that order and decorum 
which the high tone of the settlement demanded. 

The method of entrance and sitting in the chapel was also carefully 
regulated from the beginning, and no little difficulty was experienced 
in the effort to train the uncouth throngs that gathered from far and 
near to public services. As to the services, as held at the beginning 
— in this matter there were many subsequent changes — one Svmday's 



142 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA 

order may be given : Morning prayer, breakfast — all, old and young, 
partaking together — House Conference, to arrange daily routine, 
German preaching, dinner for residents and guests, English preach- 
ing, catechization, an address by the Indian, John Wasamapah 
("Tschoop"), a sermon for afternoon callers, Bible exposition, quar- 
ter hour meetings by the different divisions known as "choirs," singly, 
vesper service, usually consisting of singing exclusively, the evening 
meal, evening prayer for the single men, and then the customary 
prayer hours until midnight. Formidable as this appears, the nice 
system applied, the extreme brevity of most of these services and 
the fervent devotion which prevailed caused such a program to be 
less burdensome to the flesh than might be supposed. 

During the several months that followed the organization, first 
occasions occurred for every kind of special religious service and rite 
in the ritual of the Church, and these have interest also as notable 
incidents of those weeks. The first funeral took place on June 27. 
It was that of John Mueller, a young man of Rhinebeck, N. Y., 
who had accompanied the missionary Rauch to Bethlehem, and 
had died on June 26. Count Zinzendorf, with Christian Froehlich, 
strolled into the woods north-east of the Community House and 
selected a spot at which Froehlich dug the grave. In conducting 
the funeral, Zinzendorf consecrated the ground as the "God's acre" 
of the settlement — the present historic old cemetery. It was at first 
often called Bethlehem's "Hutberg," after the hill of that name on 
which the cemetery of Herrnhut is situated. The first funeral of a 
■ neighbor, outside of Bethlehem, held by the Brethren was that, on 
July 28, of their friend, Isaac Martens Ysselstein, who died July 26. 
Boehler conducted the service in English at the house of the family, 
on the south side of the river, and his body was interred on his farm. 
The site of his grave is unknown, but the dust of this good Hollander 
probably reposes beneath the rumble of massive machinery, or the 
heat of glowing furnaces, or the thunder of passing trains. The 
first member of the Sea Congregation who died was John George 
Heydecker, on September 10, in Falkner's Swamp, while on an 
evangelistic tour. The funeral was conducted by Zinzendorf, Sep- 
tember 12. This was the second interment at Bethlehem. 

The first marriage ceremony was performed — also by Zinzen- 
dorf — on July 8. It was that of the missionary John William 
Zander and Johanna Magdalene Mueller. The first birth and 
baptism occurred July 16, a daughter of Bryzelius and his 



1/42 1744- 143 

Vi'ife. The name Anna Regina was given the child in baptism 
by Zinzendorf on the evening of the same day. The first adult 
baptized at Bethlehem was a Quakeress of Philadelphia who had been 
married to Froehlich on July lo. Her name was Esther Robins, 
and, in baptizing her on July 17, Zinzendorf gave her the additional 
name Mar}-. The first ordination was that of Zander on August 9, 
performed by Bishop Nitschmann and Zinzendorf. Five presbyters 
present joined in the imposition of hands, and the certificate Zander 
took with him to Berbice was endorsed by twenty-seven witnesses. 
The first baptism of Indians at Bethlehem took place on September 
15. There were two of them. The first was Wanab, also called 
Gabriel, who was baptized by Zinzendorf and given the name David. 
The second, Tassawachamen, was baptized by Buettner and named 
Joshua. At the same time a white man of Oley, Joseph Bull, was 
baptized by Eschenbach and given the additional name John. This 
man figured later very conspicuously in connection with the missions 
among the Indians. He married an Indian wife and was called by 
the Indians Shebosh, the name by which he became most generally 
known. The following details of this interesting ceremony are on 
record. 

The candidates were seated in the center of the chapel on three 
chairs. Three men stood back of them and those who were to 
perform the baptism took their places on either side of Seififert the 
Elder who sat at the table and led the singing. In front of the can- 
didates was placed a tub of water covered with a large white cloth. 
Just before the baptism the men who stood behind them removed 
the blankets of the Indians and the blouse worn by the white man, 
and they all knelt on the edge of the white cloth at the tub of water. 
Zinzendorf, Buettner and Eschenbach at the same time drew near, 
each with a bowl in his hand, and dipped water out of the tub. At 
the moment when the appropriate words of the appointed verse were 
being sung, Zinzendorf repeated the names of the three and said : "We 
baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." 
Thereupon the water was poured on the heads of the three. During 
the continuance of the singing, Seiffert and the helpers approached 
and joined in the imposition of hands ; after which the baptized men 
took their seats again, the blankets and blouse were replaced and 
the service was concluded with benisons sung by the congregation. 

A special, informal service worthy of note was held on July 7, in 
the uncleared woods a short distance to the east of the Communitv 



144 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

House. It marked the first step towards the erection of the next 
large building of the settlement, which however was not proceeded 
with until two years later, on account of other building operations 
meanwhile deemed more urgent. It was decided to- build a large 
house as a common home for the single men of the settlement. Count 
Zinzendorf, planning the location of the different classes of buildings 
had in view, selected the site for this house. On that day the founda- 
tion lines were staked off and in the afternoon the single men pro- 
ceeded to clear the spot. The work was gone at in a cere- 
monious manner. All who were then at Bethlehem assembled 
on the ground. Zinzendorf delivered a brief discourse, a prayer 
was offered and the young men sang a hymn that had been 
written for the laying of the corner-stone of the Single Breth- 
ren's House at Herrnhaag in 1739. Then they went at their 
task with enthusiasm. The building which eventually arose there is 
the oldest part of the present Sisters' House, the south-west corner. 
The most urgent task, so far as the erection of buildings was con- 
cerned, was the enlargement of the Community House. Even the 
original building was not finished when the colony arrived in June. 
During the first five months of the year 1742, almost every man and 
woman who could be used by Zinzendorf in the spiritual labor he was 
inaugurating at many points, was called away from Bethlehem, and 
hardly any were left to go on with the external work. When Bishop 
Nitschmann was commissioned to visit St. Thomas, and Father 
Nitschmann was left almost without assistance, he sent an appeal for 
more help, which was considered at the fifth Conference of Religions 
in April. The colony was expected soon from Europe, quarters had 
to be provided and the time for spring sowing had come. Father 
Nitschmann knew that they must not only have shelter, but also a 
prospect of bread for the coming winter. The answer returned him 
was that the spiritual sowing took precedence, and rather than with- 
draw people from this work, things might lie fallow at Bethlehem 
and Nazareth another year, and bread be bought. Thus Zinzendorf's 
evangelistic enthusiasm, with an almost reckless disregard of the 
material necessities of the hour, overruled the master builder's prac- 
tical sense — but then, if the hour of need came, Zinzendorf would buy 
the bread. On August 12 it was decided to commence this addition 
at the east end of the Community House at once. On September 
19 the corner-stone was laid with suitable solemnities. This addi- 
tion was completed on August 22, 1743, when it was taken posses- 



1/42 1744- 145 

sion of, and an entire rearrangement of apartments and domestic 
order was effected. During the first months passed in the original 
part of the building, many necessary features yet wanting were grad- 
ually added, such as setting in windows, building partitions, laying 
permanent floors and building chimneys ; and during the first weeks 
even the carpenters' shop had to remain in the building until a little 
log house was erected for this purpose. 

Already at this crude stage the first specimen of decorative 
art at Bethlehem was put in place in the chapel of the Com- 
munity House on July 3. It was evidently the wot-k of Zin- 
zendorf's secretary, John Jacob Mueller, who was also an artist, 
as stated in a preceding chapter. He arrived at Bethlehem, 
June 28, with some other persons, in a wagon from Philadel- 
phia. He probably then brought this piece of ecclesiastical orna- 
mentation with him — no doubt hastily painted before he left the city. 
It was a picture of Christ bearing His cross. It was placed against 
the south wall of the chapel, in the center, behind the table and chair 
of the officiating minister. Connected with it, to the right and left, 
and extending to the four sides of the room as a border under the 
rough ceiling, were running inscriptions in German in three sections, 
elaborating variations of the first two lines of the well-known hymn 
of the Church which begins, in English, "The Saviour's blood and 
righteousness my beauty is, my glorious dress ;" together with the 
first two lines of another German hymn of the time, addressed to the 
Lamb slain. Thus the first attempt at any kind of decoration fast- 
ened attention upon the central theme of speech and song and was 
utilized as an object-lesson for visiting Indians. 

In that chapel, moreover, the first tile stove of the settlement was 
set up in October. It had been brought from the kiln of Ludwig 
Huebner, the potter "in the Swamp." He came to Bethlehem to put 
it in place and then later became a resident. In the latter part 
of July a large force of men commenced work at a commodious barn 
which had become a necessity. It was raised, October 15. The 
needs of the settlement now required the enlargement of facilities for 
transportation and agricultural work. Seybold was sent out, the lat- 
ter part of July, to purchase additional horses. He returned on 
August 20 with four from Esopus, in New York. At the same time, 
a threshing-floor was constructed by another set of men, for now 
their first harvest was to be gathered. July 16, they began to cut 
grain at Bethlehem and Nazareth. The ingathering of this first rye 



I4b A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and wheat grown on their land was the occasion of special thanks- 
giving. While the men were mowing oats, a few days later, some 
of the women, the record states, pulled flax "at the Schweitzer's." 
This is the first written history of the locality now called Fountain 
Hill, for that Schweitzer was Conrad Ruetschi the squatter, whose 
peaceable withdrawal from the "Simpson tract," a little later, when 
it became the property of the Brethren, was brought about with 
some difificulty, as in the case of the Indians on the Nazareth land. 

In the latter part of the summer and during the autumn of 1742 
several other small log houses were erected to serve pressing needs. 
In one of them a room was fitted up for the care of men taken sick; 
women being accommodated, when ill, in the Community House. 
Very primitive was that first hospital of Bethlehem presided over 
by Dr. Meyer. Another, built in September, contained a room in 
which to serve meals and, when necessary, lodging to strangers who 
could not be admitted to the guest-room of the Community House. 
This first approach to a hotel at Bethlehem was of importance. 

The question of building a regular tavern somewhere near was dis- 
cussed already at a meeting on July 11. It was thought of not only 
as a general public convenience, but also as a measure of self-defense, 
over against the intrusion and imposition to which the settlers were 
constantly subjected, often by very undesirable visitors, and some- 
times even by persons bent on evil purpose. Zinzendorf did not 
favor the idea of the Brethren doing this officially, and thought 
it should be left to the private enterprise of some neighbor. It may 
be added, in this connection, that the first attempt at such a public 
tavern was made in the summer of 1743, on the Ysselstein farm south 
of the Lehigh, by John Adam Schaus, at this time miller on Cedar 
Creek in the Maguntsche neighborhood, at whose house Zinzendorf 
passed the last two days of July, 1742, while on his first tour in the 
Indian country. 

Gottlieb Demuth, one of the Georgia colonists, already men- 
tioned several times, who had been living a few miles away in 
the Saucon Valley, removed to Bethlehem at this time, and 
one of the small houses built in September was for his accom- 
modation. He was wanted for important work in connection with 
building and agriculture at Bethlehem and Nazareth ; for now 
developments were to proceed on the Barony. Building operations 
had not yet been resumed there, but some land had been put under 
cultivation, there was hope of a peaceable settlement with the Indians, 



1742 1744- 147 

and now a project had come into Zinzendorf's mind in connection 
with that domain which essentially affected plans for Bethlehem. On 
July 17 the entire English contingent of the Sea Congregation arrived 
at Bethlehem from Philadelphia, and, July 31 to August 2, they 
removed to Nazareth and took up their quarters in the log house 
built by the pioneers in the Autumn of 1740. Before leaving Beth- 
lehem they were organized — July 24 — with David Bruce as their 
Elder, John Hagen as Warden and Elizabeth Wahnert as Eldress, 
temporarily, with assistants. 

Zinzendorf had been pondering a variety of complications that 
might arise under the personal liberties and rights people were 
given b}' the laws of the Province, in connection with the 
attempt to organize a regular church settlement at Bethlehem, 
after the model of those in Europe. The reception of people 
from the population of Pennsylvania as members of such a settle- 
ment was a matter that, to his mind, threatened such complications 
especially. The settlement, to be what was contemplated, would 
have to claim authority under law to enforce its own peculiar 
regulations within its own limits. One of these would necessarily 
be the right to expel persons from the place, who could no longer 
be tolerated. In cases of resistance, if persons should be disposed to 
test their rights under the civil law, it seemed probable that no special 
concessions that could be secured under the constitution of the 
Province, would give the authorities of the village power that the 
Courts would sustain, if conviction of offenses of which the law took 
cognizance did not stand against the individuals. Even in this case, 
everything, beyond mere exclusion from church membership, would 
have to be left to the law to be dealt with, and its penalties would 
not include compulsion to quit the place — the one thing that in the 
local regulations of the settlement would be considered the most 
desirable disposition to be made of persons inimical, in principle and 
conduct, to its institutions. This reasoning led him to the thought 
that on the Barony of Nazareth, with the right of Court Baron and 
views of frankpledge — if these were made use of and rendered 
operative by the necessary legal process — the kind of local control 
had in mind could be maintained under the laws of the Province. 
Such supposable complications, and such jeopardy to the character 
and purpose of the settlement would not then arise. 

Therefore he conceived the idea that, after all, it might be better 
to have the Nazareth manor in view for the church village — Oris- 



I4o A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

gemeinc — and let Bethlehem be utilized in a special way as a school 
center and headquarters of the extensive work among the children 
of Pennsylvania which he thought of developing. With this idea 
was connected the transfer of these English colonists to Nazareth, 
as a nucleus. It seemed more expedient to have that settlement 
assume an English character at the beginning, under the English 
laws bearing upon the case. When they located at Nazareth, the 
regular English preaching that had been commenced at Bethlehem, 
July 8, ceased temporarily, for now people from the neighborhood 
who came to English services could attend there. But very soon 
this entire scheme was abandoned. 

On September 16-17, important revisions were made in the organ- 
ization of Bethlehem. Six different plans were worked out and 
considered, and one of these, which would open the way for the 
establishment of such a church village there, like Herrnhut, in process 
of time, was adopted. It was drawn by lot from among the six. 
From that day the destiny of Bethlehem to become the chief settle- 
ment and the administrative center of all Moravian work in America 
was fixed. This was adhered to, although eventually Nazareth 
became such a church village also. The first week in October, the 
ephemeral Nazareth English settlement came to an end, and on 
October 8, all who made up its personnel — excepting a few to be 
employed in the English itineracy — returned to Philadelphia, where, 
on the 1 2th, they organized as a little house church, to prosecute 
city mission work, and await further developments. 

The Nazareth post being again vacant, Matthias Seybold and his 
wife, on October 16, removed to the place to temporarily guard the 
property. When they went to Philadelphia a few weeks later to sail 
for Europe, they were succeeded in the solitary duty at Nazareth by 
Michael Miksch and his wife, who remained until January 30, 1743, 
when they were relieved by Gottlieb Demuth and wife. Miksch 
returned to Bethlehem and occupied the historic original log house, 
the place in which Demuth had lived for a while, and, before him, 
the Zeisbergers, from the beginning to the middle of August, 1742. 

In the midst of these shifting plans, the work among the children, 
which had been in view as one of the most important departments of 
activity, remained in a chaotic state and made but little progress 
during 1742. No parents "from the Townships" responded to the 
second circular sent out by John Bechtel on June 6, inviting them to 
meet at Bethlehem, June 24-25, for consultation on the subject. It 



1742 1744- 149 

was thought that the urgent farm work of the season kept some 
from coming who would otherwise have been there. It was decided 
therefore on July 17, to adopt a different course, and send persons 
about the country to talk with the people on the matter. Meanwhile, 
on June 28, the children of the Germantown school, opened May 4,. 
were brought to Bethlehem, in care of Gotthard Demuth and wife, 
Johanna Hummel and Elizabeth Braun, who had been sent to 
Germantown for the purpose. They were quartered somewhere in 
the crowded Community House, and put in the care of several 
appointed persons. The Countess Benigna and other young women 
seem to have then continued to devote attention to the instruction 
of the girls. The boys, under temporary care of several men by turns, 
were reorganized on July 19 and taken charge of by the Elder, Anton 
Seififert, assisted by Dr. Adolph Meyer, when not engaged in 
professional duties, with George Neisser, who had been in connection 
with the school when it was founded in May, and now was entrusted 
with so many kindred functions, serving as their special instructor ; 
which duty he had, as it seems, performed before this reorganization, 
from the time of their arrival. He may, therefore, quite properly, 
be given the distinction of having been the first school-master of 
Bethlehem. This, indeed, is the designation he gave himself when 
he assumed the publication, on August 10, of the reply, sketched by 
Zinzendorf — discussed and officially adopted by the Bethlehem 
authorities — to the outrageous utterances of Dominie Boehm's letter 
of warning to the people, already referred to. That reply was 
endorsed: "Published by George Neisser of Sehlen in Moravia, 
school-master at Bethlehem, cum approbatione Superiorimt," with the 
imprimatur of John Brandmiller, giving authority. 

Local circumstances made it difficult to continue that little board- 
ing-school for girls during the ensuing autumn and winter, and on 
August 20, the three girls who lived in Germantown were returned 
to their homes. The boys' school was continued. On September 28, 
some other children of parents in Philadelphia and elsewhere, who 
were not members of the Church, were also taken home, and only a 
few belonging to Moravian families were left. 

The general subject of school work was discussed again at 
a session of the Pennsylvania Synod held in Fredericktown, 
October 15, where the scheme to establish a general boarding-school 
for boys in Philadelphia and one for girls at Germantown was 
adopted. But this plan was not then carried out on account of 



150 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

practical difficulties. As a result of canvassing and proper explan- 
ations in various neighborhoods, many parents would at that time 
have availed themselves of such opportunities, in spite of the absurd 
calumnies that continued to be circulated, in order to foster prejudice. 
Evidences, sometimes distressing and sometimes ludicrous, of such 
suspicion and ill-will on the part of Bethlehem's neighbors in the 
"Irish settlement" appear from time to time. While these neighbors 
were not, so far as can be ascertained, among those who circulated 
the grosser slanders current in some quarters, their opposition to 
"the Moravians" was significant to the minds of people at a distance, 
for, being near neighbors, they were supposed to know them. This 
opposition shown by these sturdy pioneers of the Forks seems to 
have arisen mainly from exaggerated fears of local aggression and of 
plans for supremacy on the part of the Brethren, and from the 
prejudice that had been awakened by the utter incompatibility of 
theological conception and general religious cult. The genius of a 
Zinzendorf, and that of a Knox or a Calvin fostered among these 
settlers, were, doctrinally and socially, as well as racially considered, 
at opposite poles of the Christian circuit, and it is not surprising that 
time was needed to bring the representatives of the two into any 
kind of sympathetic touch. 

While the Brethren, under their system cultivated a certain 
kind of exclusiveness, especially in reference to their affairs — 
and people are usually suspicious of social or religious organizations 
about which they cannot find out much — these neighbors, as well 
as those in other directions, had evidences enough of the good-will 
of the Bethlehem people and of their desire to be correctly understood 
in all matters of which people had a right to expect infotrmation. 
This desire led to the introduction of English preaching directly 
after the organization of Bethlehem. People who might be served 
in that way were given the benefit of it, and opportunity was afforded 
for all to hear what the doctrines of the Brethren really were. This 
also induced them to set Sunday dinners, at first, before all who 
gathered from a distance, whether well or ill-disposed, out of 
resources far from abundant. Not the least of the services rendered 
by Bethlehem to its surroundings, from the time of its organization 
on, consisted in the stated tours made by its physician over an 
extensive region, from the Minisinks, even beyond the Delaware, 
down to Durham. 



1742 1744- 151" 

One of the causes some of the men at Bethlehem unwit- 
tingly gave their Calvinistic neighbors to say harsh things about 
them, had an aspect almost comical. While the word Sabbath, 
according to old German usage, meant — and quite correctly 
— the seventh day, to the minds of the Bethlehem people, these 
neighbors, like all, then and now, who follow Puritan tradition in 
this matter, called Sunday the Sabbath. The German and the Scotch 
idea about the manner of Sunday observance differed. Those neigh- 
bors, ever vigilant and seeking an occasion for censure, accused 
certain Brethren of "Sabbath breaking." These, when they heard it, 
supposed that the degree of honor they were paying, for reasons 
already explained, to the seventh day, or Sabbath, in addition to the 
first day, was not giving satisfaction to their exacting neighbors. 
Therefore, at first, in trying to conciliate them and remove the 
stumbling-block, they rested yet more carefully on Saturday, while 
it did not occur to them that they must take more pains to conform 
to Puritanical views of the Lord's Day. Hence their well-meant 
efforts only made matters worse. At last it became clear to them 
that the Sabbath breaking of which they were accused had reference 
to Sunday, and they were admonished by the Elder to give more 
heed to their ways on that day. In all particulars, they were com- 
pelled to be very circumspect, for they were under the close scrutiny 
of critics, from every standpoint, among the throngs who visited 
Bethlehem, inspecting everything and holding inquisition. The naive 
and the less prudent among them had to be cautioned often about 
being over-communicative, entering into discussions and trying to 
explain everything about which questions were asked. 

Some canards afloat were traced to the gossip of certain 
unprincipled and ungrateful redemptioners employed at Bethlehem, 
who wished to entertain the curious with embellished accounts of 
things, and even circulated malicious falsehoods, out of revenge, 
when they were discharged for unseemly conduct. It was then insisted 
upon by Zinzendorf that this class of employes be dispensed with, 
and that, in future, if the Brethren released any more such persons 
from a hard bondage, they be simply set free to go their own way. 
He broached the idea of rather, in order to procure the needed 
"servants," purchasing slaves among whom missionaries were 
laboring in St. Thomas, and then freeing and regularly hiring them. 
He added : ''We may thus also show a certain author who has written 
a work against slavery, our manner of dealing with the negroes." 



152 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Occasional strolling bands of Indians were, during the first weeks 
after the organization of the place, the most interesting of all the 
visitors. About the middle of July, some such were escorted into the 
chapel, where some of the Brethren entertained them with instru- 
mental music, and then tried to speak to them about the Saviour — 
probably showing them the picture that had been placed against 
the wall — and sang hymns for them. On that occasion the thought 
of sending some one to live among the savages to learn their 
language was discussed. This was shortly before Count Zinzendorfs 
first journey into the Indian country, on which he started with a 
selected company on July 24. Two days before that, he made the 
proposition to Henry Aimers that he devote himself to this under- 
taking, and he was at once ready to do so, but for some reason this 
plan was not carried out. 

That first tour of the Count was chiefly important in the covenant 
he made with the representatives of the Six Nations whom he met 
at Conrad Weiser's in Tulpehocken on August 3. There he received 
from them the famous belt of Wampum, which he took to England, 
and in 1743, passed over to Spangenberg, who brought it back to 
Pennsylvania and made important use of it. On that occasion the 
Count, in turn, gave those chiefs a token by which they might iden- 
tify any of his brethren who came among them, for they would have 
a duplicate to authenticate themselves. It was a seal inscribed with 
the words Jesus Jehovah, to be stamped in wax. 

He returned to Bethlehem, August 7 and, three days later, set 
out on his second tour, from which he returned, August 30. This 
journey was through parts of New York and extended to Rauch's 
mission at Shekomeko. He had his daughter and Anna Nitschmann 
with him, besides Anton Seiffert and several attendants. On this 
journey he was arrested by a constable on the charge of "breaking 
the Sabbath," because some spies found him writing in his tent on 
Sunday evening. He was taken before a village "squire" and fined 
six shillings. Constable and justice got their fees and certain 
preachers had a new text to use against the Moravians, and so all 
were made happy. 

The accounts given of these tours at Bethlehem awakened 
the greatest enthusiasm for the extensive plans of missionary 
work among the red men of the forest that were now being 
discussed. His final Indian tour on which he started, September 
21 — by far the longest and most perilous — was that to the upper 



1742 1744- 153 

Susquehanna and into the Wyoming Valley which was then a terra 
incognita to white men, excepting perhaps an occasional venturesome 
trapper or trader. On that journey he encountered heathenism and 
savagery in their darkest colors, endured not only very great 
privation and hardship but imminent peril of his life, for the fierce 
tribes of those regions, among whom he there ventured, were a 
different kind of men from the Indians of the lowlands. Conrad 
Weiser joined his party at Tulpehocken and was with them on part 
of the tour. They visited the large Indian town of Shamokin, met 
the famous Madame Montour at Ostonwakin, and passed twenty 
days among the treacherous, blood-thirsty Shawanese of Wajomik, 
where no white man had before set foot. There occurred the incident 
recorded by Martin Mack, who was with Zinzendorf — and so often 
repeated with variations — in which the Shawanese were said to have 
been impressed by the thought that the Great Spirit was protecting 
him and that he had a charmed life. Be this as it may, the hand of 
God was held over him in protection against them — far more dang- 
erous than the serpents. Mack's unembellished narrative is the 
following:* "The tent was pitched on an eminence, one fine sunny 
day, as the Disciple sat on the ground within, looking over his papers 
that lay scattered about him, and as the rest of us were outside, I 
observed two blowing adders basking at the edge of the tent. Fearing 
that they might crawl in, I moved toward them, intending to dispatch 
them. They were, however, too quick for me, slipped into the tent, 

4 The translation of Mack's statement given by W. C. Reichel, Memorials of the Moravian 
Church, p. io6, has been followed. The Disciple — der Juiiger — was the name given in 
later years to Zinzendorf. In a collection of verses written by the Count at that period 
are some treating of American experiences — among them two relating to this famous journey. 
One verSe alludes to this incident — to the serpents and to the fiction of the Indians about the 
silver ore : 

Des Zeltes erster Ruheplatz 

Das waren Dorn und Disteln, 

Der dritte ein verborg'ner Schatz, 

Wo Blaseschlangen nisten. 

Two others yet more graphically depict the situation : 

Dort in der Flache Wajomick, 
Auf einem wiisten Ackerstiick, 
Wo Blaseschlangen nisteten, 
Und ihre Balge briisteten ; 

Auf einem silbererznen Grund, 
Wo's Leibes Leben misslich stund, 
Da dachten wir: wir sahen gem, 
Das wiirde eine Stadt des Herrn. 



I5'1 A HISTORY OF BKTHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

and, gliding over the Disciple's thigh, disappeared among his papers. 
On examination we ascertained that he had been seated near the 
mouth of their den. Subsequently the Indians informed me that our 
tent was pitched on the site of an old burying-ground in which 
hundreds of Indians lay buried. They also told us that there was 
a deposit of silver ore in the hill and that we were charged by the 
Shawanese with having come for silver and for nothing else." 

Zinzendorf and some of his party got back to Bethlehem on 
November 8, at eleven o'clock at night, much exhausted but filled 
with more fervent zeal than before for the conversion of the savages. 
On November 12, a long awaited missionary conference was held 
at Bethlehem, at which the Count unfolded the extensive and 
systematic scheme for carrying on this work that he had matured. 
His vivid account of the experiences made among the Shawanese, 
instead of deterring men and women, had the effect of increasing 
the number of volunteers for this service to fifteen. This interest 
had been heightened by the baptism of the two Indians from Sheko- 
meko on September 15, already described. Another kind of relation 
to representatives of this race, which has been referred to several 
times, was the cause of perplexity and annoyance rather than of 
enthusiasm at this time. Captain John and his band were yet lingering 
at Nazareth. The missionary Rauch and the Indian Elder John 
Wasamapah, on July 2, and Joseph Powell with David Zeisberger, 
on July 5, had interviewed them, to effect their voluntary withdrawal, 
but to no purpose; although the latter were armed with an order 
from Governor Thomas for their ejectment sent to the authorities 
at Bethlehem by Justice Irish on July 3. Zinzendorf, in com- 
iTiunicating with the Governor about it, had been disposed to pay their 
demands in order to bring matters to a peaceable conclusion and 
hold the good will of the Indians, but the strong objection of the 
Government prevented him from doing this. 

It was insisted upon that the law must be enforced, and that such a 
precedent would be injurious. The objection was the more firm 
because, as was plainly intimated, white neighbors, inimical both to 
the Governor and to the Moravians, were encouraging Captain John 
in his stand. In July came the peremptory command to the Delawares 
to leave the Forks, issued, with supercilious contempt, by the chiefs 
of the Six Nations at Philadelphia — those chiefs whom Zinzendorf 
met and treated with on August 3. Tatemy and Captain John, on 
December i, secured permission from the Government, on the 



1742 1744- 155 

ground of being avowed Christians, to individually remain in the 
neighborhood, but it was insisted upon that the others must leave. 
Zinzendorf also secured tacit consent to pay them something for the 
rude improvements they had made, having been led, in an interview 
he had with Captain John when he started on his first journey into 
the Indian country in July, to believe that this would secure their 
peaceable departure, after the ultimatum they had from the Iroquois 
chiefs, and would prevent revengeful feelings on their part towards 
the Brethren as owners of the land. 

December 26, 1742, Zinzendorf once more went to Nazareth, just 
before he finally left Bethlehem, and succeeded in bringing the 
negotiations to an amicable conclusion. He agreed to pay the Indians 
for their huts, a peach, orchard and a little field of wheat, the 
maximum sum demanded by them when they were yet most obdurate. ' 
It was to be paid in several installments — one-third down on the 
closing of the agreement, and they were given permission to return 
and take away their little crop of Indian corn gathered into a sod- 
covered crib, when they wanted it. They promised, on these 
conditions, to depart into the Indian country, which they did before 
the close of the year. The written agreement, a German version of 
which is extant, was put into the hands of the respected Chief Tatemy, 
who became its custodian. Thus the Brethren at Bethlehem, 
remaining consistent in their respect for the Government on the 
one hand, and their benevolent intentions towards the Indians on 
the other, retained the good will of both, and effected what neither 
the order of the Governor nor the commands of the Iroquois 
chiefs — the lords of the Delawares — could have brought about 
amicably ; while those neighbors who hoped to see the Moravians 
discomfited in the situation were disappointed. But the end was 
not yet, for when the complications of the following years raised up 
the Nemesis to afflict the region, there was no discrimination exer- 
cised by the blind fury that swung the scourge. 

Plans as elaborate and comprehensive as those for the Indian 
missions were matured for the general evangelistic work throughout 
the country during that summer and autumn of 1742, and the 
connection of Bethlehem with many points was established. Two 
general conferences in reference to this work were held at Bethlehem ; 
one, July 11-12, and the other on November 15, which were attended 
by Antes and some other leading members of the Pennsylvania 
Synod ; besides the regular session of this Synod at the house of 



156 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Antes on October 15, already referred to. At the July conference 
it was more definitely settled than had been the case before on what 
basis the personnel of this executive body should be made up. It was 
followed by the formal starting out of the largest force of itinerants 
that had yet been organized. A result of the November conference 
was a clearer classification of its functions than had yet gone on 
record. These were, in addition to the Indian missions which 
constituted a distinct department, in general, five for the coming 
year: i, to superintend itinerant preaching; 2, to foster the work at 
Fredericktown, Germantown, Oley, Philadelphia and Tulpehocken ; 
3, to develop a model Christian congregation at Bethlehem and later 
at Nazareth; 4, to oversee the Church of God in the Spirit and 
cultivate the union of its members among all religions ; 5, to get the 
special work for the children established. The active connection with 
so many points increased the personal intercourse of people from 
all quarters with Bethlehem, so that the number of visitors from 
September to the end of the year was very large. At the end of 
October a company of Mennonite Brethren made a formal call. On 
November 3, came Brother Elimalech (Emanuel Eckerlin) of Ephrata 
and remained until the 5th. It is stated in the diary that the people 
of Bethlehem were in perplexity about the object of his visit. Other 
Ephrata men came in December. Conrad Weiser visited the place 
November 21. The name of John Adam Luckenbach, school-master 
in Goshenhoppen, appears among the visitors on December 21. 

Large companies came from Philadelphia and Germantown, and 
from many places about the country towards the end of December. 
On the 22nd, thirteen persons were received as members of the 
Brethren's Church, and on the 29th, seventeen more were thus 
received. They were not to become residents of Bethlehem, but 
to be members where they lived. During the first years it was cus- 
tomary for all such receptions to take place formally at Bethlehem, 
after which the persons returned to their homes. Among those who 
were received on the 29th were five men from Maguntsche and Sau- 
con who formed the nucleus of what later became the congregation 
of Emmaus. They have sometimes been styled "the Fathers of 
Emmaus." 

The time of Zinzendorf's last sojourn at Bethlehem had now 
come. From December 2 to 12, he had made one more tour among 
the settlements, preaching seventeen times at Maguntsche, Heidel- 
berg, Oley, Tulpehocken and Lancaster, and had visited Ephrata. 



1742 1744- 157 

After his return to Bethlehem his time was closely occupied in official 
interviews with Bethlehem boards, itinerants, foreign missionaries, 
of whom several from the West Indies were there, and with persons 
stationed at various places in Pennsylvania. After the first evening 
service on December 24, there was a missionary conference, at which 
many new appointments, not only among the Indians but in the 
West Indies, were made. Five districts for work among the Indians 
were arranged, with as many sets of men associated with each. 
He called each such district set a Heidcn Collegium. Christian 
Henry Rauch, with an Indian helper, was to make a general tour of 
these districts. 

The vigils of Christmas Eve began at eleven o'clock. At this 
service, held in the chapel of the Community House, reference 
was made to the service of the previous year in the little log house, 
"when the settlement received the name Bethlehem." Special 
attention was drawn to the watchword of the Church for the day: 
"The name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah Shammah — the 
Lord is there." (Ezek. 48:35). Application of it was made to Beth- 
lehem, with the hope that the meaning of the words might there be 
realized. At this service the Count extemporized a chain of thirty- 
seven stanzas on the theme of the hour which were sung with a 
fervor and emotion like that of the memorable Christmas Eve service 
of the previous year. They were put into print with the title, "In 
der Christnacht zu Bethlehem, 1742," and were called "the Bethlehem 
Christmas hymn," also "the Pennsylvania Christmas hymn."^ 

The remaining days of the year were similarly occupied. On the 
morning of December 31, Zinzendorf officiated at morning prayer, 
had all who were then in Bethlehem together at a lovefeast, when 
general announcements in reference to the order of things at the place 
for the ensuing months, were made, and then had special interviews 
with the itinerant and local ministers, the missionaries to the heathen, 
the company made up to go with him to Europe, numbering thus 
far twenty-one persons, and with the people who constituted the 
settled, local congregation at Bethlehem, after which he celebrated 
the Holy Communion with its elders, wardens and other officials. 

5 The first stanza begins with the lines : 

" Gliickseliger ist uns doch keine Nacht 
Als die uns das Wunderkind hat gebracht." 

A few of these stanzas may be found in somewhat altered form in the modem German 
hymnals of the Church. 



158 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Thereupon, all being in readiness for the journey, he took final leave 
of Bethlehem, and started for Philadelphia. He was escorted across 
the river by nearly all the people of the place. On the south side 
he paused and addressed a farewell greeting m song to the spot, 
went into the house of the Ysselstein family to bid adieu to them, as 
cherished friends, and then proceeded on his way accompanied by a 
number of persons. His daughter, with some of the persons who 
were to accompany him to Europe, left Bethlehem on New Year's 
Day, and the most of them went directly to New York. On January 
2, the last contingent started for New York with some who were 
bound for St. Thomas, W. I., to engage in missionary service. This 
company, with the luggage, was conveyed to New York on two 
wagons. One of them was in charge of young David Zeisberger who 
was listed to accompany the Count to Europe and be employed in 
church service there. This incident proved to be a crisis in his life. 

At New York, when all were on board, and the ship was on the 
point of leaving the dock, young Zeisberger was observed by Bishop 
David Nitschmann leaning over the rail and looking wistfully and 
sadly ashore. Inquiring of the young man whether he did not wish 
to go to Europe, Zeisberger declared plainly that he did not, but 
much preferred to remain in America and labor for the Lord here. 
Without further ado Nitschmann suggested that, if such was his 
feeling, he should come ashore and remain. Acting upon this 
suggestion he at once left the ship which sailed without him. Thus 
his course was led into paths on which he became the most distin- 
guished of all missionaries among the Indians. 

Zinzendorf did not reach New York until January 13. He had a 
final meeting with the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Synod, 
January 8, at the locality near Philadelphia known as "the Ridge." 
The next day he had important conferences with fellow workers in 
the city, and on the evening of that day, delivered a parting address 
to a large gathering of them in the house of John Stephen Benezet. 
This address which treated at length of principles and methods of 
work in Pennsylvania, was called by him his "Pennsylvania Testa- 
ment," and as such was put into print. 

During the next two days he effected an organization, on a new 
basis, under the changed conditions, of those Lutheran families who 
preferred to retain the ministrations of the Brethren in connection 
with the Pennsylvania Synod. He closed his labors there by 
preaching a farewell sermon on the evening of January 11, in the 



1/42 1744- 159 

new church buih at his expense on Race Street for these people and 
dedicated in November. 

In the process of further developments this church with the congre- 
gation there organized, came into full connection with the Moravian 
Church. On that evening, in the midst of intense emotion, he left 
the church during the singing of the closing hymn, to avoid the 
ordeal of personal leave-takings, and went out to Frankford where 
he spent the night. The next day he proceeded on his way to New 
York. Reaching there on the 13th, he first visited Captain Nicholas 
Garrison on Staten Island, with whom he had become acquainted 
already in 1739 in the West Indies. He was not only an experienced 
and able seaman, but a noble. Christian man. This interview brought 
him not only into the Moravian Church, but into its service in 
capacities highly important and conspicuous. The Count wanted this 
eminently trustworthy sea captain for a special purpose. A second 
colony, much larger than the Sea Congregation of 1742, was to be 
transported to Pennsylvania from Europe on a ship to be purchased 
for the use of the church. Garrison was asked to accompany Zinzen- 
dorf to Europe and take command of this enterprise. He looked 
upon it as a duty that had come to him, and he got ready and went 
along a week later. 

During that week spent by Zinzendorf in New York, another 
important conference was held with a number of Brethren who were 
to take charge of affairs at Bethlehem and in Pennsylvania generally, 
and with missionaries there waiting for a ship to St. Thomas. In 
connection .with this occasion there was sorrow in consequence of 
the unexpected death, on Staten Island, January 8, of the faithful 
missionary Valentine Loehans of St. Thomas, who had been 
occupying the few weeks before his return to the West Indies in 
doing evangelistic work among the negroes about New York. John 
Brucker, a member of the Sea Congregation, who was appointed 
to accompany the West India missionaries as a lay assistant, was 
ordained at New York by Zinzendorf, because the death of Loehans 
deprived them of an ordained man in that field. The arrangement 
then made, in accordance with the plan of the November conference, 
for Bethlehem and the work in Pennsylvania was an ad interim one, 
for the intention was that, after the new American colony had been 
formed and gotten on the waj', Spangenberg should return to this 
country, locate at Bethlehem and assume charge as general superin- 
tendent of the whole. Boehler, who was with the Count in New 



l60 A HISTOKY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

York, having been given the appointment at that November 
conference, was now installed to fill this position during the interval, 
together with Bishop Nitschmann who was to devote himself to 
developing the Indian missions. Zinzendorf retained the nominal 
inspectorship of the Lutheran department of the Pennsylvania 
Synod's work, but Boehler, while entrusted with the local oversight 
at Bethlehem, was made Vice-Inspector of that Lutheran work, 
Syndic, or Moderator of the Synod, and one of the four directors 
of the whole. On Sunday, January 20, Zinzendorf and his company 
with Captain Garrison and his daughter sailed from New York on 
the ship James, Captain Ketteltas, for London. They reached England 
in safety on February 17.° 

Boehler, in accordance with arrangements, remained a few weeks 
in New York to preach. In consequence of the persistent agitation 
of those ministers who were carrying on the crusade against "the 
Moravians," he was subjected to gross indignity in being ordered 
out of the city as "a vagabond" by the authorities ; and almost to 
personal violence like that which Pyrlaeus suffered in Philadelphia 
as the outcome of the Rev. J. P. Boehm's similar crusade. A few 
years later these demonstrations of narrow bigotry and fanatical 
intolerance reacted against those clerics, and made friends for the 
Brethren among the authorities and the people generally. 

The ad interim arrangements for the conduct of affairs at Bethle- 
hem lasted longer than had been expected, for Spangenberg's return 
to America was delayed, and he did not come until the end of Octo- 
ber 1744. During this interval fewer stirring scenes were enacted 
than while Zinzendorf was in Pennsylvania. There was less planning 

6 Besides those just mentioned, this company to Europe consisted of the following per- 
sons : The Countess Benigna; Anna Nitschmann; Rosina Nitschmann, wife of Bishop David 
Nitschmann; Magdalene Wend, who in Germany was married to Jonas Paulus Weiss; Anna 
Margaret Antes, daughter of Henry Antes, who in England became the wife of the Rev. 
Benjamin La Trobe; Joseph Mueller from the Great Swamp, who in Germany studied medi- 
cine somewhat and after his return filled a useful position in this service, particularly at 
Nazareth; Veronica Frey, daughter of William Frey of Frederick Township, who in Europe 
was married to Mueller; George Neisser, appointed to help form and prepare the next colony 
for Pennsylvania; John Jacob Mueller, the Count's secretary; David Wahnert and wife — he 
having been cook of the Sea Congregation, and serving numerous later colonies in this capa- 
city; Gottlieb Haberecht, George Wiesner, a member of the Sea Congregation returning to 
Europe; Andrew Frey, later an enemy and traducer of tlie Brethren; Andrew the Negro 
and his wife Maria, and three who were not members, viz.: James Benezet. a son of Stephen 
Benezet of Philadelphia; Jesse Leslie of Ephrata and William Hall of Brunswick, N. J. 
There were two others whose names are not given. 



1742 1744- i6i 

and organizing and both material and spiritual activities proceeded 
with less turmoil and sensation. But some things of importance were 
achieved at Bethlehem and on the Nazareth land in externals. The 
most notable of these, during the first six months of 1743, was the 
building of a grist mill at the foot of the declivity above which the 
original house of the settlement stood. On January 25, the site was 
selected and Henry Antes, whose principal business was that of a 
millwright, offered to superintend its construction. He was assisted 
by the miller John Adam Schaus, already mentioned, who was now 
keeping the primitive tavern on the south side of the river, and by 
Gotthard Demuth, who came from Germantown for the purpose, 
together with a force of workmen from Bethlehem. The first grist 
was ground on June 28, and devout thanksgiving was rendered for 
this valuable acquisition. It was soon recognized as a boon also by 
the settlers to the north and west of Bethlehem and in the Upper 
Saucon Valley, for before this the only place within reasonable dis- 
tance at which they could have grain ground seems to have been 
the mill of Nathaniel Irish on the Saucon Creek and that on Cedar 
Creek which Schaus had lately been operating. Thus began the his- 
tory of Bethlehem's famous mill-seat near the spring, where now in 
the third mill on the spot — the second was built in 1751 — while all 
the other early industries which there arose about it have long ago 
passed away, the golden grain is yet ground for bread by machinery 
and processes of which those first builders and grinders did not 
dream. The miller Schaus was installed to run the stones for a while 
and instruct an assistant. He was also associated with another con- 
spicuous improvement at the place made early in 1743- Ford and 
canoes were no longer adequate means of crossing the river, especi- 
ally now that a mill was to be built, and on the same day on which 
the site of the mill was fixed, a place for a ferry was selected at the 
river. A "flat" to be propelled by poling was built and, on March 
II, was dragged into the river by eight horses and launched. Schaus 
was the first of the line of regularly appointed ferrymen who did 
Charon-service with this rude craft and its successor, after it was car- 
ried away by a flood in 1746, followed in 1758, by the rope ferry, 
until 1794, when the first bridge across the Lehigh at Bethlehem was 
finished and opened for travel. 

In August letters from Europe informed the executives at Bethle- 
hem that the large second colony that was awaited would probably 
arrive several months later. This occasioned new activity in prepa- 



l62 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ration for further building enterprises. Tlie time had now come to 
turn attention to the Barony of Nazareth, where a considerable num- 
ber of these colonists were to locate. Neither hammer nor trowel 
had been lifted upon the foundations of the large stone house, laid 
there three years before, since the suspension of the work in that 
dreary November of 1740. This matter was the subject of a confer- 
ence on August 27. Four stone masons arrived from Germantown 
on September 28, and went to Nazareth, with Jacob Vetter, who in 
May had removed to Bethlehem from Oley, to start and direct the 
work. The Elder, Anton Seiffert, who had formerly been a carpen- 
ter, assumed the oversight of the woodwork. October 14, the car- 
penters of Bethlehem went in a body to Nazareth to raise the frame- 
work of the roof and begin to shingle it. But with all the energy 
now centered upon the completion of the Whitefield House, fears 
were expressed that it would not be ready to be occupied before the 
colony arrived. 

In addition to getting that building finished, other plans that 
had been mapped out were now coming to light in steps that 
were taken. Henry Antes suggested to Zinzendorf the idea 
of opening six separate plantations on the Nazareth land, each with 
its own complete group of buildings and its own personnel of six 
families conducting a joint house-keeping and working the fields, 
stockyards, dairy and orchard in the interest of the whole. Thus 
this fine domain would be developed and become the most important 
source of support for the establishment at Bethlehem, and for the 
extensive missionary work. This general idea found acceptance, and 
the selection of the people to make up the colony of 1743 was based 
on this plan. Those for Nazareth were to be mainly people adapted 
for agricultural pursuits. Those for Bethlehem, which, so far as 
externals were concerned, was to be the center of manufacturing 
industry and the place of trade, were to be for the most part men 
skilled in various handicrafts and qualified to engage in business. 
Some were to be competent as accountants, secretaries and scriv- 
eners, a few men of classical education were to accompany them, and 
of the whole number, as many as possible were at the same time to 
be persons available for religious work when required. On October 
8, Bishop Nitschmann, Boehler and Seiffert made a tour of inspec- 
tion over the Nazareth land, to select such places for opening farms, 
and a site for the further central buildings of the Barony. It is 
recorded that they found six suitable spots with copious springs — the 



1742 1744- i63 

statement being added that springs which did not flow all the year 
were dry at that time and those then found running could be relied 
upon. The location of what after the lapse of years came to be called 
''Old Nazareth," as well as of the other points afterwards opened on 
the Nazareth land may be traced to the reconnoissance of that day. 

During those months of 1743, while further minor improvements 
were being added in the village of Bethlehem itself, the cleared 
and cultivated area on the original Allen tract was being extended, 
and a first orchard was planted with young apple trees brought from 
Oley on March 27, further activities were prosecuted on the south 
side of the Lehigh. It early became clear to the men of Bethlehem 
that the land lying along the south bank of the river and rising to 
the south-west, where they traveled the path to Maguntsche, was too 
near and prospectively too valuable to not be added to their posses- 
sions, if this could be done. Negotiations were opened with Wil- 
liam Allen in February, 1743, which resulted in the first purchase 
across the river, that of the so-called Simpson tract of 274 acres. 
When the preliminary agreement was settled, Mr. Allen insisted on 
the removal of the Swiss squatter Ruetschi, the first resident of 
Fountain Hill, already referred to. The matter was broached to him 
and he became much incensed and called the Brethren hard names 
He also appealed to Justice Irish to sustain his right of preemption 
and option on the land ; but Henry Antes, being in Bethlehem just 
then, took part in the complications, with the result that a writ 
of ejectment from Mr. Irish was served upon the squatter. Dr. 
Adolph Meyer was sent over to face his wrath and to tell him that 
the Brethren were compelled, in accordance with Mr. Allen's stipu 
lations, to let the law take its course ; but that they would give him 
ample time in which to move and would make him a present of the 
crop from two bushels of oats that they had sown on the land. 

Thereupon he was mollified and agreed to depart in peace. After 
that the name of Ruetschi appears no more in the local chronicles. In 
June following, another man comes into view on the south side who 
was associated with its primitive population and with various trans- 
actions, until in June, 1745, he yielded to the demand of the authorities 
at Bethlehem and vacated the house they permitted him to build 
in June, 1743, on their land on the south side, "near the tavern" — 
Schaus's. This was Anton Albrecht who removed to Bethlehem with 
his family from "near Philadelphia" at that time and was admitted 
to church membership, but became for some reason persona non grata 



164 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

at Bethlehem. In October, 1747, he arose to importance in the 
neighborhood as the first constable of Bethlehem Township. Three 
useful men whose names became conspicuous, in addition to Vetter, 
came to Bethlehem at this time and were admitted to regular church 
membership. They were Frederick Hartman from Philadelphia, 
Franz Blum from the Saucon Valley, both of whom were directly 
employed at Nazareth, and the potter Ludwig Huebner, already 
mentioned. Notwithstanding the hard toil and the extremely plain 
living in the matter of food and clothing, the course of things at 
Bethlehem during that time is referred to in records as a peculiarly 
peaceful and pleasant one. 

One mournful figure, however, haunted the place. They had 
a poor, mentally deranged man on their hands whose pres- 
ence disturbed the peace at times, tried the nerves of the 
weak and awakened dread among the superstitious. It was the 
eccentric Englishman Hardie, referred to in a previous chapter. 
There was no institution to which they might take him, and they 
lacked proper facilities for his care. In February, 1743, they tried 
the plan of placing him in one of the Indian cabins at Nazareth under 
a special guard, but he escaped and wandered down to Justice Irish 
who sent him back to Bethlehem with a curt request in writing — the 
paper yet exists — that the Brethren take better care of him. One plan 
after another was tried, and many references to the trouble experi- 
enced with him during fits of madness occur until after 1745, when he 
left Bethlehem. He later appeared in the Ephrata community as 
"Brother Theodorus." He once more visited Bethlehem in August, 
1754, attired in his brotherhood garb. His strange career is described 
in the Chronicle of that place. Like dissolving views, the fading vision 
of Thomas Hardie melts into that which then appears of the demented 
brother, Conrad Harding. He was, like the Englishman Hardie, a 
man of some refinement by birth and associations and withal of edu- 
cation and piety. He came with the colony of 1743, became mentally 
deranged, and when attempting to ford the Lehigh to go to a Synod 
at Philadelphia — having escaped from those who tried to restrain 
him — was drowned, March 29, 1746. The perplexing confusion in the 
references to these two unfortunate men is increased by the fact 
that both names are mis-spelled in some of the German diaries, and 
made more similar; and the fact that one with the name Theodorus 
— the cloister name given Hardie at Ephrata — came to Bethlehem 
from Europe in 1750, and died very soon after. Doubtless some 



1742 1744- i65 

would think it quite a proper feature that Bethlehem, at that early 
day, should have its mystery among the characters associated with 
it. 

The connection of Bethlehem with the Indians during the year 
1743 presents nothing that calls for mention in these pages except 
that the project to have some one go into the Indian country to 
learn the language of the people, for which, at first, Henry Aimers 
was had in view, was carried out in the case of Pyrlaeus, after he 
closed his labors as preacher for those Lutherans of Philadelphia 
whom Zinzendorf had organized. He went to Tulpehocken in Jan- 
uary, 1743, and, while conducting the school there with his wife, 
studied the Mohawk language under the guidance of Con- 
rad Weiser, who was thoroughly conversant with it. They 
had their home at Weiser's house. They returned to Beth- 
lehem early in May, and after Rauch had gotten back in 
June from a protracted sojourn in the Mohawk country, they 
went there, took up their abode at Canajoharie, the middle of July, 
and remained there, enduring much hardship and privation until in 
September. On February 4, 1744, he opened a school at Bethlehem 
for candidates who proposed to enter the mission service, and under- 
took to teach them the language, the attempt to procure an Indian 
from Freehold for this purpose having failed. As to the ordinary 
school work, it is to be noted that on July 18, 1743, John Christopher 
Francke^ took ten boys to Nazareth and there, in the log house built 
by the pioneers in 1740, organized a little home school. It was the 
forerunner of the school in Nazareth Hall, and was the first school 
on the Baronv of Nazareth. 



7 Francke, who subsequently figured mainly in connection with school work and was or- 
dained in 1749, had, with his wife Christina, arrived at Bethlehem from Europe in September, 
1742, with a little company that was to have come with the Sea Congregation but for some 
cause were left to follow later. The others were Daniel and Rosina Neubert with an 
adopted child, Jacob and Anna Margaret Kohn, Martin and Anna Liebisch, Anna Maria 
Liebisch, Anna Maria Brandner and Michael Schnall. The invalid wife of Dr. Adolph 
Meyer, Maria Dorothea Meyer, sailed with them, but died on the voyage and was buried at 
sea, off the banks of New Foundland. Several of this company, particularly Neubert and 
Schnall who both became very useful men in Pennsylvania, had been actively connected 
with the attempt at Pilgerruh in Holstein and Heerendyk in Holland. Schnall was the 
father of the missionary John Schnall. They both ended their days at Bethlehem. Anna 
Liebisch was married at Bethlehem to Anton Seiffert and died in June, 1744. Kohn and 
his wife also engaged in spiritual service for a season but returned to Europe in 1745. The 
others were likewise conspicuously active people in various capacities. 



l66 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The institution for girls at Betlilehem was reorganized on October 
19 following, when a room was provided for its use in the new eastern 
part of the Community House then completed. 

At the very time when work was resumed on the large stone 
house at Nazareth, with a view to its use by the new colony that was 
expected, the main body of that colony sailed from Rotterdam to 
begin the voyage across the Atlantic. Those who were to constitute 
the Nazareth contingent were recruited with a few exceptions, at 
Herrnhaag and Marienborn — thirty-three young couples, of whom 
thirty couples were just married, twenty-four together at the latter 
place on May 27. For some years they commemorated this event 
by a lovefeast at Nazareth. It was spoken of as "the great wedding." 

They proceeded in six divisions to Holland and at Rotter- 
dam, on September 12, they met the party from Herrnhut, ten 
married couples, one of them having an infant son — the 
only child in the colony — four single men and one single 
woman. The men of this party were mainly artisans, while 
a few of them were men of good education. A few also were 
native Bohemians and Moravians. Some of these colonists became 
regularly ordained ministers. At Rotterdam they found Captain 
Garrison waiting with the vessel he had purchased in England and, 
with the valuable aid of James Hutton of London, had fitted out to 
transport them. It was called the Little Strength. It was sometimes 
spoken of as the Irene, the name which at one time it was proposed 
to give it, as it seems, and which was bestowed upon the third 
transport owned by the Church. Its ensign is described as "a lamb 
passant with a flag on a blood covered field" — the device that has 
always figured with variations of detail, on the episcopal seal of the 
Church, and as its general official emblem. They lifted anchor at 
Rotterdam, September 16, got fairly on the way next day, and after 
a very trying and tedious sail, reached Cowes, September 25. There 
they found the English colonists awaiting their coming. There were 
six married couples, with the widowed mother of one of the men, from 
England. These were also people of various pursuits, but all of them 
persons who could be utilized in positions requiring natural capability 
and some education. One was an apothecary, another was later 
general steward of the establishment at Bethlehem, several were 
employed for some years in school work. Two were eventually 
ordained to the ministry. 

Captain Garrison, who had now identified himself fully with the 
Brethren, took command, not onlv as master of the vessel, but as 



1/42 1744- 16/ 

Elder of the colony during the voyage. With him was associated, as 
sailing-master, Captain Thomas Gladman, who had safely brought 
over the Catherine with the first colony; he being at this time 
also in regular connection with the Brethren in England. With 
Gladman, as mate, was John Christian Ehrhardt, who had been 
attracted to the Brethren in 1742, when mate on a vessel which took 
the West India missionary Frederick Martin from Holland to the 
West Indies ; who later served under Captain Garrison on the Irene, 
and was with the company that made the ill-fated first attempt to 
found a mission in Labrador in 1752. John Cook, a native of Leg- 
horn, Italy, and now a member of the Church in England — ^not only 
a sailor but a man of quaint poetic and artistic talent — served as sec- 
ond mate. Eight other sailors, one of whom was Nicholas Garrison, 
Jr., son of the captain, together with three boys, made up the rest of 
the crew. All but one of the sailors and two of the boys seem to 
have been counted as belonging to the Association of the Brethren. 
Organized for the voyage in much the same manner as the first col- 
onj', they have been called "the Second Sea Congregation."^ They 

8 Space cannot be taken to insert even very brief personal notes of the members of 
this colony, as in the case of the first, for the number is too large. Such notes of some of 
them, who later figured in special ways, will be found in other connections elsewhere in this 
volume. Brandmiller and Wahnert had come with the first colony and returned. The 
several lists extant in print are not complete nor accurate. The complete roll is as follows : 

I. FROM HERRNHAAG AND MARIENBORN. 
Anders, Gottlieb and Johanna Christina. Michler, John Wolfgang and Rosina. 

Biefel, John Henry and Rosina. Michler, John and Barbara. 

Boehmer, Martin and Margaret. Moeller, John Henry and Rosina. 

Boehringer, John David and Gertrude. Mozer, John and Mary Philippina. 

Brandmiller, John and Anna Mary. Muecke, John Michael and Catherine. 

Christ, George and Anna Mary. Nilsen, Jonas and Margaret. 

Fischer, Thomas and Agnes. Ohneberg, George and Susan. 

Fritsche, John Christian and Anna Margaret. Opitz, Leopold and Elizabeth. 
Goetge, Peter and Anna Barbara. Otto, John Frederick and Mary. 

Crabs, John Godfrey and Anna Mary. Partsch, John George and Susanna Louisa. 

Hancke, Matthew and Elizabeth. Reichard, David and Elizabeth. 

Hessler, Abraham and Anna Mary. Reuz, Matthew and Magdalene. 

Hirte, John Tobias and Mary. Schaaf, John and Anna Catherine. 

Hoepfner, John Christopher and Schaub, John and Divert Mary. 

Mary Magdalene. Schober, Andrew and Hedwig Regina. 

Jorde, John and Anna Margaret. Schropp, Matthew and Anna Margaret. 

Krause, Matthew and Christina. Wagner, Anton and Elizabeth. 

Kremser, Andrew and Rosina. Wahnert, David and Mary Elizabeth. 

Kremser, George and Anna Maria. Weinert, John Christopher and Dorothea. 

Kunckler, Daniel and Anna Mary. Weiss, Matthias and Margaret Catharine. 



IDS A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

sailed from Cowes, September 17, and anchored off Staten Island "in 
front of Captain Garrison's house," November 26. 

The next morning Henry Aimers, who was then engaged in evan- 
gelistic work on Staten Island, went aboard with his wife to greet 
them, and then took the mass of letters that had been entrusted to 
Captain Garrison by Spangenberg and George Neisser, when the ship 
left Plymouth, and hastened off to Bethlehem to announce the arrival 
of the colony. Hector Gambold was awaiting them in New York 
with various instructions to be communicated. Thomas Noble, of 
New York, also went aboard to welcome them and at his house a 
consultation was held, after the vessel reached her dock on the 27th, 
in reference to the conveyance of the great quantity of luggage to 
Bethlehem. Dr. Meyer was at once dispatched to New York, after it 
was known that they had arrived, to assist in conducting them to 
Bethlehem and to render any professional service that might be 
needed. Captain Garrison as Elder of the colony was responsible for 
getting them properly started on the journey to Bethlehem, and 
accompanied one detachment all the way. They were divided into 
bands, each with a leader, as the best method of traveling. The journey 
from New Brunswick to Bethlehem was made afoot. This was a serious 
undertaking for people just landed after a long sea voyage, many 
of them, particularly of the women, being rather feeble, even though 

2. FROM HERRNHUT. 
Broksch, Andrew and Anna Elizabeth. Zeisberger, George and Anna Dorothea. 

Demuth, Christopher and Anna Mary. (single.) 

Hantsch, John George, Sr., and Regina. Doehling, John Jacob. 

Henclce, Christopher and Elizabeth. Hantsch, John George, Jr. 

Hertzer, John Henry and Barbara Elizabeth. Harding, Conrad. 
Muenster, John and Rosina. Oerter, Christian Frederick. 

Nieke, George and Johanna Elizabeth. Hantsch, Anna Regina (d. of J. G., Sr.). 

Nixdorf, John George and Susanna. (infant.) 

Schuetze, Christian and Anna Dorothea. Nixdorf, John Gottlob. 

3. FROM ENGLAND. 
Banister, Elizabeth (widow), mother of Payne. Ostrum, Andrew and Jane. 
Digeon, David and Mary. Payne, Jasper and Elizabeth. 

Greening, James and Elizabeth. Utley, Richard and Sarah. 

Leighton, John and Sarah. 

4. OFFICERS AND CREW. 
Nicholas Garrison. Ole Bugge. Notley Togood. John Nelson (boy). 

Thomas Gladman. Jarvis Roebuck. Owen Daly. John Leathes (boy). 

John Christian Ehrhardt. Benjamin Davis. Nicholas Garrison, Jr. John Newton (boy). 
John Cook. James Moore. Samuel Wennel. 



1742 1744- ID9 

there had been no serious sickness on board. The first one to reach 
Bethlehem was Hantsch, Jr., December 5. After his party had trav- 
eled a day and a half he was not able to proceed farther, and procured 
a horse and rode on ahead of the rest. December 6, two more single 
men arrived by way of Nazareth during the evening service. Then 
later on the same evening came Wahnert and his wife, with about 
thirty. They were followed by Captain Garrison, who stated that he 
had left his company in the care of Captain Gladman, about six miles 
from Bethlehem, because they were too much fatigued to travel far- 
ther. He also announced that another band conducted by Dr. Meyer 
might be expected that night yet. They came very late, almost 
exhausted. Boehler, then in charge at Bethlehem, records that they 
sat up and waited until this last detachment arrived and then had a 
lovefeast in the chapel. He also says : "The chapel was quite filled, 
and all rejoiced like children at this new influx to our little manger." 
The Bethlehem brethren served the newcomers and bathed their 
galled and weary pilgrim feet,^" for they had bad weather, roads and 
lodging, and often scarcity of food on their journey." 

9 " JCrippleiti^' — an allusion to the associations of the name Bethlehem, like Zinzendorf, in 
certain verses sent to Bethlehem by him the previous summer as a greeting from the home 
of the miller Schaus in Maguntsche, beginning : 'Christi KrifpscJinft, Siiendcr Sippschaft — 
Wie^s Ltitherns ausgedrufcit." 

1° Such a service to a footsore traveler, spontaneously rendered by a warm-hearted brother 
some years before, and then followed by others with increasing frequency, gradually led to 
the thought of making it a token, in imitation of Christ taking the servant's place in this 
■well-known act of oriental hospitality; after the manner of certain medieval reli- 
gious orders, and of certain German sects which have continued the practice to modem 
times. The over-wrought cultus developed at the middle of the i8th century then made it 
general as a church-ceremony in connection with certain occasions, especially Maundy- 
Thursday (John 13). Although conducted with all possible decorum — the several divisions 
(choirs) of a congregation by themselves, the sexes of course apart, at different hours, and 
never in a general public service with a mixed assembly present — the practice began to wane 
before iSoo. In America, when last in vogue, the act, confined to the several exclusive 
church settlements, was restricted to Maundy-Thursday for many years and, even then, 
had become such a distasteful requirement that it was frequently omitted, because 
no edification attended it. The General Synod of 1818 released the congregations 
from obligation to observe it, and it has been obsolete since then. Comparatively 
few members of the Moravian Church in America even know that such a custom ever 
existed in it. This note is deemed desirable because not only antiquated works of reference 
■on such matters giving misleading information, but even a dictionary of knowledge on 
•churches and church customs published as recently as 1890, claiming special accuracy and 
"up-to-date"' information, tells the public that this is one of the practices of the Moravian 
Church. 



170 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The next morning Captain Gladman reached Bethlehem with his 
company. "They walked very lame and feeble, but were all cheerful 
and happy." Shortly after them came two young men, one of them 
Cook the Italian sailor, who had passed the night at Nazareth. In 
the afternoon the two Bethlehem wagons came with eleven of the 
women and several men who had quite given out. Then friends from 
Saucon, Maguntsche and the Great Swamp began to come in to wel- 
come them to Pennsylvania. In the evening the whole company 
assembled and listened with great interest to the reading of Buettner's 
diary of the Shekomeko mission, lately received at Bethlehem. The 
next day, December 8, the last of them, sixteen persons, arrived ;. 
among them the one mother who had a little child with her to care 
for. 

On Monday, December 9, twenty carpenters went to Nazareth to 
finish the work on "the stone house" as rapidly as possible. Antes 
was now in Bethlehem giving the benefit of his judgment and experi- 
ence in connection with various new questions occasioned by the 
coming of this colony, and the undertakings that were being delayed 
until this time. Captain Garrison having accomplished his mission, 
returned to his home. That same day another man, subsequently 
of prominence and importance, arrived at Bethlehem. This was 
James Burnside, of Savannah, Georgia, referred to in chapter III. 

The house at Nazareth having been gotten ready for occupancy, 
thirty-two young married couples, ^^ on January 2, 1744, started 
together for Nazareth to locate there and organize. They all went 
afoot, the men in advance with axes, making a better road through 
the woods than had existed before— the first public road between 
the two places was not laid out by order of Court until March, 1745 — 
the women following with provision for a meal on the way. It was 
evening when they reached their destination. Bishop Nitschmann,. 
Boehler, Seififert and Nathanael Seidel were there to usher them into 
their new quarters. With their first evening prayer at the close of 
that day was combined the consecration of the chapel in that large 
building, which for many years, was the place of worship, ordinarily, 
for the entire population of the Barony of Nazareth. It was long 
the practice to go to Bethlehem on all communion occasions and 
special festival days. The next day, January 3, the first organiza- 
tion took place. In accordance with the express wish of Count Zin- 

"This company consisted of all enumerated in note 8 under the first section, excepting 
Brandmiller, Hoepfner, J. W. Michler, Opitz, Otto, Wagner, Wahnert, and their wives. 



1742 1744- i/i 

zendorf, Dr. Adolph Meyer was installed as Warden, with also his 
professional headquarters at Nazareth ; for another physician, a son 
of a physician and surgeon, and bringing a doctor's degree in medi- 
cine from Halle, had arrived with the new colony and was now to^ 
locate at Bethlehem. This was John Frederick Otto, M.D.^- 

The heavy luggage of the colonists and sundry other articles 
brought over on the Little Strength had been transported by water 
from the hold of the vessel to a warehouse at New Brunswick. 
Numerous trips were made by the Bethlehem wagons during Janu- 
ary and February, until this considerable quantity of freight was con- 
veyed to Bethlehem. With one of the loads, on January 25, came a 
spinet presented by an English member of the Church, William Peter 
Knolton, fanmaker, of London, and later, for a few years, of Phila- 
delphia. This first musical instrument of the kind in Bethlehem was 
the forerunner of its ultimate abundant piano-forte equipment, as 
well as of the small, portable organ {Orgd positw) of just two years 
later — made for the place, brought from Philadelphia and set up by 
the Moravian organ-builder, John Gottlob Klemm, then of Philadel- 
phia, formerly a teacher of boys at Herrnhut, who had become 
estranged from Zinzendorf and emigrated alone to Pennsylvania. 
The spinet — so the record states — looked very dilapidated, but 
skilled hands were busy at once to put it together, and the next day 
they could use it in worship. With this episode may be associated 
mention of the first hints found, during the months following, of par- 
ticular attention given to music at Bethlehem. Stringed instruments 
of music were evidently brought to the settlement by some members 
of the first Sea Congregation, for Indians who visited the place were 
entertained with such music before the second colony arrived. Early 
in 1744, there are traces of organized vocal music and of occurrences 
in connection therewith which some persons imagine are associated 
only with modern church choirs, for already, in the month of Feb- 
ruary, a misunderstanding among the singers called forth a sharp 
reproof from the Elder. In the following April occurs the first men- 
tion of the single men singing hymns outside the buildings, at dif- 
ferent points, on Saturday evening — a custom maintained with con- 

1= This second regular physician in the Forks was the elder of two brothers of that name 
who figure in the history of Bethlehem. The other, whose medical degree was from Stras- 
burg, was Dr. John Matthew Otto who arrived from Europe in 1750. He was the more 
eminent and widely known as physician and surgeon. The first died at Nazareth in 1779, 
the second at Bethlehem in 1786. 



172 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

siderable regularity for a number of years. Later on, these twi- 
light serenades at the close of the week often consisted of instru- 
mental performances. This occurred, in connection with the vocal 
music, already in June following the introduction of the practice. In 
that same month of April, the Easter matins, at four o'clock, were 
accompanied with instrumental music, in the procession to the new 
God's acre, with its three or four graves. On December 13, 1744, 
after Spangenberg had come to Bethlehem and commenced to apply 




FRENCH HORN OF THE XVIII. CENTURY. 

his brains and heart and hands to the development of every depart- 
ment and the regulation of every feature of the establishment, the 
first formal meeting of a Collegium Musician, then organized, took 
place. The musical leader at that period — before this George Neis- 
ser, now in Europe, and Anton Seiffert, the Elder — was Pyrlaeus, 
who, besides being a good singer, played the spinet and then the 
chamber organ, and drilled both vocalists and instrumentalists. These 
duties he combined with the direction of the linguistic studies of can- 
didates for missionary service among the Indians, already mentioned. 
His music-room and class-room were now in the new house of the 



1/42 1744- 173 

single men, the dedication of the site of which has been referred to. 
At that spot — the south-west corner of the present Sisters' House — 
the foundation was again staked ofif, after long delay on account of 
other building operations, on July 30, 1744. It was 30 by 50 feet. 
On August 9 the corner-stone was laid with solemn ceremonies, and 
on December 6, after the arrival of Spangenberg, it was dedicated 
amid great rejoicings. The work had proceeded more rapidly than 
that on previous buildings, for now there were more mechanics, and 
all the timber did not have to be hewn and split. The much-needed 
sawmill of the settlement was in operation. On the massive stone 
foundation, yet to be seen, it was raised on May 26 and on June 26 
the first sawing was done. Timber cut in February and March by 
squads of Bethlehem axe-men far up in the forest of Pochkapochka — 
the Lehigh Gap and along the so-named creek, now Big Creek — was 
being floated down the river ; and in converting it into beams and 
posts, rafters, joists and boards, the measured rasp and crunch of the 
long saw and the rumble of the water wheel driving it, succeeded, to 
a great extent, the ring of the broad axe on the white oak logs. 

The completion of that important building, increasing accommo- 
dations so materially, led to some new shifting and re-arrangement. 
More ample quarters were secured in the women's part of the Com- 
munity House. Such good health had prevailed during the spring 
that the house, utilized since the end of February as the hospital for 
men, was standing vacant. This seems to have been the Demuth 
house built the previous autumn. The hospital had, before that, been 
transferred from its first quarters to a house across the river — prob- 
ably the vacated cabin of "the Schweitzer" Ruetschi — and then in Feb- 
ruary back to the north side. At the end of May the single women 
had taken temporary possession of the vacant hospital, and now, 
when the new arrangements afforded them quarters in the Commu- 
nity House, the school for girls was, on Christmas Day, 1744, trans- 
ferred to this vacant house ; the new house of the single men con- 
taining a room for the sick. 

More general and important movements were held in suspense 
during 1744, pending the opening of a new administration at the close 
of the year. Bishop Nitschmann, after making several tours of the 
missionary circuits among the Indians, sailed with Captain Garrison 
on the Little Strength for Europe from New York, March 24. With 
him went Wahnert, the useful "ship diaconus" on so many voyages, 
Harten, of the first Sea Congregation, returning to Europe, and 



174 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Weber, the West India missionary, with their wives, besides two other 
men from Pennsylvania. He also took with him an Indian couple, 
Samuel and Mary, Wampanoags, who had been married by Boehler, 
February i6 — the first Indian wedding at Bethlehem. On May i the 
Little Strength was captured by a Spanish privateer and, with a prize 
crew on board, sent to St. Sebastian, where, on May 7, the men were 
all thrust into a filthy prison, but the women, through Captain Garri- 
son's efforts, were given quarters in the town. They were released 
the next day and eventually reached their destination, but the Little 
Strength was lost. The perils now threatening' the prosperous work 
among the Indians, through excited prejudice and ignorance, under 
the apprehensive unrest of the time, especially in New York, made 
it desirable to take measures, through negotiations with the British 
Government, to secure protection for the missions if possible. The 
presence of Bishop Nitschmann, as representative of the Indian mis- 
sions, was therefore needed in Europe. The popular mind was the 
more aflame after the formal declaration of war between England 
and France, in March. Although at a conference between the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania and the deputies of the Iroquois confederacy 
at Lancaster in June, the latter covenanted to stand against the plans 
of the French for enlisting Indian allies to harass the settlements, 
little confidence was put in this by the people ; least of all in New 
York. 

Under these circumstances the frequent journeys of men from 
Bethlehem to the Indian villages in that Province were regarded with 
keen suspicion ; for the representations of those clerical guardians 
■of religion and protectors of the state who had brought about Boeh- 
ler's expulsion from New York in January, 1743, had thoroughly con- 
vinced many men in authority and the people generally that the 
Moravians were Papists. This meant, of course, under the circum- 
stances of the time, that they were partisans of the French, and their 
•emissaries among the Indians. Governor Thomas had issued his 
proclamation to the citizens of Pennsylvania in June, announcing 
England's declaration of war and calling upon them to show loyalty 
and support measures of defense. Therefore in Pennsylvania also 
the connection of men from Bethlehem with the Indians began to call 
forth sinister comment to a greater extent than before, particularly 
among the co-religionists of the New York agitators. 

In that Province the excited feeling at last broke out in actual per- 
secution, and a series of measures on the f)art of, first the petty local 
functionaries, and then the higher provincial authorities, was provoked 



1742 1744- 175 

by the popular clamor, in which, as the sequel proved, the doom of the 
Indian missions in those parts was sealed. In the crusade against the 
Moravians, the assaults of those who stood for doctrine and the efiforts 
of those who feared for the safety of the state were supplemented by 
those of unscrupulous traders who preferred to see the Indians remain 
sunken in ignorance and vice, and considered their business endang- 
ered by the presence of the missionaries. Successive mandates sum- 
moned them before magistrates in one and the other village to give an 
account of themselves, but no hold could rightly be found. A like 
examination before the Governor and Council took place in New 
York City early in July, but the result was merely an order to return 
home and peaceably await furtherdecisions. What awakened the most 
suspicion was the unwillingness of the missionaries to take an oath, 
for in New York the authorities were not familiar with the presence 
of a quiet and respectable body of people who took this position, like 
the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania. So the agitation continued 
until finally, in December, a sheriff and three justices went to Sheko- 
meko with an order to the missionaries, in the name of the Governor 
and Council, to appear before Court a few days later, and ofificially 
closed the mission chapel. An act against the Jesuits in 1700, which 
expired by limitation in 1745, was conveniently found available, and 
the outcome was that the Moravians were ordered out of the Prov- 
ince, under the charge of being in league with the French, and were 
forbidden, under severe penalty, to further visit the Indians. Many 
right-minded men were filled with indignation at this outrage, but, in 
the main, it met popular approval. 

The General Assembly of New York had, on September 13, 1744, 
passed a new act to cover the case, which received the endorsement 
of Governor Clinton on September 21. It was entitled, "An Act for 
securing his Majesty's Government of New York." When the ques- 
tion was discussed, what to call it, one member who did not favor it 
proposed that it be called "the persecuting act." It provided for 
restrictions and permits that would bar out the Moravian mission- 
aries, and then, among other things, enacted that "every vagrant 
preacher, Moravian or disguised Papist, that shall preach without 
taking such oaths or obtaining such license, as aforesaid, shall forfeit 
the sum of £40, with six months imprisonment without bail or main- 
prize, and for the second offense shall be obliged to leave the colony ; 
and if they do not leave this colony or shall return, they shall suffer 
such punishment as shall be inflicted by the Justices of the Supreme 
Court, not extending to life or limb." Furthermore, it was enacted 



176 A HISTuKY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNbVLVANIA. 

that "every vagrant preacher, Moravian, disguised Papist or any 
other person presuming to reside among and teach the Indians under 
the pretense of bringing them over to the Christian Faith, * * * 
without such license as aforesaid, shall be taken up and treated as a 
person taking upon him to seduce the Indians from his Majesty's 
interest, and shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted by the 
Justices of the Supreme Court, not extendmg to life or limb." For- 
tunate was it that Bethlehem was in Pennsylvania and not in New 
York, and that the men in Pennsylvania of like views could not get 
control of the government. It is surprising, too, that in the space 
of such a few years after that, the government and leading men in 
New York were offering inducements to the Brethren at Bethlehem 
to send people to settle in that Province. In the meantime, however, 
the following year, Moravian missionaries did actually suffer, not only 
fine, but imprisonment, and their work among the Indians in New 
York was ruined. 

If it be doubted by any that the animosity engendered specifically 
against the Moravian Brethren and issuing primarily from the men 
who inveighed against them from the pulpits in sympathy with the 
Amsterdam manifesto produced this measure, the following final 
clause of the act makes this clear: "Provided always, and be it 
enacted by the authority aforesaid, that nothing in this act contained 
shall be construed to oblige the ministers of the Dutch and French 
Protestant Reformed Churches, the Presbyterian ministers, minis- 
ters of the Kirk of Scotland, the Lutherans, the Congregational 
rhinisters, the Quakers and the Anabaptists to obtain certifi- 
cates for their several places of public worship already erected or 
that shall be hereafter erected within this colony, anything in this act 
to the contrary notwithstanding." 

Spangenberg reached New York, October 25, 1744, on the James, 
which had taken Zinzendorf and his party to Europe. The announce- 
ment of his arrival was received at Bethlehem, October 30. George 
Neisser and Christian Froehlich returned with him and reached Beth- 
lehem, November 6. With him came also Abraham Reincke and 
wife and Andrew Horn and wife to reinforce the ministry. They got 
to Bethlehem, November 9. Captain Nicholas Garrison also returned 
to New York with him. Spangenberg, upon learning the state of 
affairs with the Indian mission in the colony of New York, started 
with Captain Garrison at once for Shekomeko, where he arrived on 
November 6. He did what he could to comfort and encourage the 
converts, but all his efforts to stay the tide that had set in were 



1742 1744- 1/7 

unavailing. The civil authorities were deaf to all entreaties and 
expostulations. It was clear that in the face of such bigotry and 
intolerance, nothing was left but to face all dangers and put the foolish 
and outrageous menace to the utmost test, in following the higher 
duty. This was unhesitatingly done early in the following year by 
men who went to the region again to take all risks in the name of 
the Lord and for the sake of souls. Thus, on February 23, 1745, the 
Missionary Post, and the most promising student under Pyrlaeus, 
young Zeisberger, who went to the Mohawk Valley to perfect him- 
self in the Mohawk language, were actually committed to prison in 
the city of New York and were not released until April 10. 

Spangenberg reached Bethlehem November 30. There was great 
rejoicing at his arrival. He had been married, March 5, 1740, to the 
young widow Eva Mary Immig,m. n. Ziegelbauer, who became a most 
zealous and efficient help-meet in the responsible and onerous labors 
now before him. On July 26, 1744, shortly before he left Germany, 
he was consecrated a bishop. He came to Pennsylvania as General 
Superintendent of all the work in America, including everything that 
lay in the broad scheme of the Pennsylvania Synod, with its Mora- 
vian, Lutheran and Reformed departments — "Tropes." As a kind 
of ecclesiastical plenipotentiary, with all this in view, he bore the 
ponderous title of "Vicariiis Gencralis Episcoporiim ct per Amcri- 
cam in Presbytcrio Vicarius," with power to personally appoint a 
successor in an emergency. The first part of this title — Vicar General 
of the Bishops — had, as its basis, the idea conceived by Zinzendorf, as 
stated in a previous chapter, of the representation and combination 
of the three "religions," as tropes, in the episcopacy; as its purpose, 
the consecration, by authority, of bishops, when necessary, from 
among men associated with any or all of the three. The second part 
of the title — Vicar of the Eldership for America — had reference to 
that idealizing of the eldership, distinct from the episcopacy, then 
in vogue ; a kind of purely spiritual headship, from that of single con- 
gregations, and their several divisions called choirs, up to that of 
the whole. For a few years prior to 1741 there had been such a Gen- 
eral Elder of the whole. Then the conception of the supreme invis- 
ible headship of Christ was laid hold of and applied to that ideal func- 
tion. The general eldership was abolished as an office, and Christ the 
Head of the Church was spoken of as Chief or Supreme Elder. Accord- 
ing to the view propagated by Zinzendorf. this conception, as applied 
to actual organization and office, was not regarded as, at this time 
and under existing conditions, established in America. Therefore 
Spangenberg was entrusted with such a general eldership here. 
13 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Economy During Spangenberg's First Term. 
1745— 1748. 

When Spangenberg returned to Pennsylvania, at the close of I744> 
to reside at Bethlehem and assume the superintendency, he proceeded 
on the broad lines of a comprehensive scheme that had been worked 
out before he left Europe. It was spoken of at the time briefly as 
his "general plan." It is outlined in sixteen items. These are in 
substance the following: i. An itinerant congregation and a local 
church settlement — Pilgergemeine, Ortsgerneinc — are to be established 
and small congregations are to be formed wherever needful and pos- 
sible. 2. The itinerants are to have their rendezvous ordinarily at 
Bethlehem, but are to move about "as a cloud before the wind of 
the Lord to fructify all places." 3. There shall be a central house- 
hold — Hausgemeine — at Bethlehem to have charge of the general 
establishment, support the itineracy and abide at the place when the 
pilgrims are in the field. 4. A house for the single women and one 
for the single men, and the organization of the older boys and girls 
into choir divisions are to be had in view. 5. The centralizing of 
large numbers of single persons, remaining single, in such establish- 
ments is not advisable in America where there is less difficulty con- 
nected with instituting married relations than in the European settle- 
ments, and married people, are more serviceable. 6. Six farms are 
to be opened on the Nazareth land, on which groups of people are to 
be located and organized as a "Patriarchal Economy." (The idea 
was to thus develop the resources of the domain, as the chief supply 
for the support of everything carried on by the central administra- 
tion at Bethlehem, under a kind of broad family plan. The building 
of a central manor house, as the seat of a paternal oversight, some- 
what in keeping with the associations of the Barony under its nomi- 
nal privileges, was had in mind.) 7. "The large house" — the White- 
field house at Nazareth — is then to become an institution for child- 

178 




AUGUSTUS GOTTLIEB SPANGENBERG 



1745 1748. 179 

ren. 8. The Brethren in America should not call thenaselves Protes- 
tant or Lutheran or Moravian, but simply Evangelical Brethren and 
a Brethren's Church. 9. It shall not be the purpose to make things 
"Moravian" (in carrying on the general evangelistic work) ; but if a 
church settlement — Ortsgemcine, see item i — comes into existence at 
Nazareth, it could be formed as a Moravian congregation,^ ceteris 
pai-ibits. 10. The work among the Indians is to be prosecuted on 
apostolic principles (without regard to denominationalism), but 
Indians who have been baptized under other religions (denomina- 
tions) are to be associated with these, unless first spiritually awak- 
ened through the ministrations of the Brethren. (This latter clause 
had in view Indians baptized in a mere perfunctory way by Romish 
priests, with no instruction in matters of faith and no effort at their 
conversion.) 11. Wyoming must not be lost sight of, for the Ordi- 
narius (Zinzendorf) had the firm conviction that a congregation from 
among the heathen would arise there. 12. The Synod shall remain 
a general one, open to all servants of Christ who desire benefit from 
it for their denominations, or the salvation of their fellowmen. It 
shall be regarded as a Church of God in the Spirit with a general 
direction extending among people of all denominations. 13. The 
fundamental principles adopted in the first seven Conferences of Reli- 
gions are to be undeviatingly adhered to. 14. The Testament of 
the Ordinarius (at the house of Benezet) made before his departure 
from Pennsylvania elucidates those conferences and is not to be left 
out of sight. 15. In money matters, drafts are to be avoided, and if 
the issue of a draft becomes necessary (t. e. on Europe) notice must 
be given long in advance, in order not to embarrass the treasury. 
16. The appointment of general overseers and matrons of the child- 
ren — Kinder Eltern— is to be had in mind and suitable persons are to 
be sought. 

Some of these points were worked out in more detail, in so far as 
they involved co-operation in Europe. In other respects, Spangen- 
berg was given complete control, to develop and apply the principles 
at his discretion. Thus arose under his administration an elaborate 
and interesting establishment called the General Economy, with its 
central management at Bethlehem and its personnel and operations 
embracing the settlements on the Nazareth land, as well as the itiner- 



J In order to comprehend these points, the elucidation of Zinzendorf s conception of the 
status of the Moravian Church, as such, and of his Pennsylvania scheme, as given in 
Chapter V, must be had in mind. 



l80 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

acy, school enterprises and Indian missions at many places conducted 
from this center. There has been much popular misapprehension in 
reference to the nature of this General Economy, as well as to its dur- 
ation. It existed, strictly speaking, seventeen years, from the beginning 
of Spangenberg's first term at Bethlehem until 1762, when it was dis- 
solved. Prior to 1745 the arrangements were devised for the tem- 
porary situation. They rested on the simple practical exigencies of 
the case, as with any new colony similarly situated in those days or 
now, where a large number of people with insufficient accommoda- 
tions at a pioneer stage, making common cause, institute special 
arrangements, as a large household or camp, for common subsist- 
ence, the preservation of such ideas of order as they may have and 
the systematic prosecution of their first undertakings. The only two 
features that were not common were the degree of religious character 
given to everything in accordance with the spirit of the people and 
the central purpose of the settlement ; and the nature of some regu- 
lations applied both to internal discipline and order and to external 
activity. In these points observers, of course, found a measure of 
strictness and minuteness, as well as a kind of arrangement, not met 
with elsewhere. 

Now, however, the system developed by Spangenberg was no mere 
emergency plan, but was carefully constructed, with a view to deal- 
ing with all the conditions to be considered and to prosecuting all the 
operations, both spiritual and material, to be undertaken, in what 
was believed to be, and upon trial proved to be, the best way. Things 
were accomplished during those years which, without large pecuniary 
resources — and these they did not have — would otherwise have been 
impossible. When this system is spoken of as the General Economy 
— General Oeconomie, also GemcinschaftUche Occonomie, i. c, an economy 
in common, the emphasis is to be laid not upon "Economy," a word 
understood and used in the ordinary sense by them, but upon the 
word "General," in seeking the special significance of the term. They 
spoke of many an organization or establishment, religious, social or 
industrial, as an economy; e. g., they referred to Whitefield's Econ- 
omy, Wiegner's Economy and Antes's Economy — his mill seat, plan- 
tation and large workshop combined and employing a number of 
persons. 

That it was a General Economy, embracing Bethlehem and the 
affiliated stations on the Nazareth land under one management, and 
including the entire personnel, and not any peculiar ideas or prin- 



1745 1748- i8i 

ciples suggested by the word Economy, must be taken as the 
prominent thought. What there was unique in the system lay in 
certain details of organization and management, and these rested 
not on any general ideas experimented with for their own sake, but 
on purely practical grounds. Spangenberg and the men with him 
who elaborated the system, were no mere doctrinaires, seeking to 
apply and test some kind of academic theories of religious, social 
or industrial life, but were sober-minded men of affairs, with all their 
exalted religious ideals and fervid enthusiasm. The details of the 
system and the various features of the organization usually had 
practical reasons back of them, and in the combination of great 
practical wisdom with intense piety, holding questions the most 
matter-of-fact in close connection with the finest ideas of spiritual 
devotion and social sentiment, the genius of the man in control and 
the force of his personality appear. 

It has been the custom of some writers to apply the word com- 
munistic to the system. This is a misleading term, on account of 
some ideas popularly associated with it. The arrangement was not 
communistic in any sense beyond that in which a number of persons 
who agree, for a definite or indefinite period, to give their time and 
labor to an institution or common cause, are furnished subsistence 
from that source. No personal liberty was surrendered, even to the 
extent to which a man under a written contract is bound for the 
stipulated time. No papers, so far as can be ascertained, were 
signed by any, thus brought to Pennsylvania without expense to 
them, and taken care of in every particular while connected with 
the organization. "Any dissatisfied person is at liberty to leave at 
any time," was the plain declaration, "for there is no wall around 
Bethlehem." The corresponding right to expel persons for cause 
was, of course, claimed, and the reasonable demand that, so long 
as one remained a member of the Economy he must conform to all 
regulations, was insisted on. There was never the slighest inter- 
ference with private property rights, although man}' who were 
possessed of means voluntarily contributed to the cause, or loaned 
money without interest, or gave the Church the benefit of their estates 
on condition that they be cared for. 

Without attempting to describe the minutiae of the intricate 
organization, or to reproduce the designations given the numerous 
administrative and deliberative bodies, or the various special func- 
tionaries, a few salient features mav be noted. Besides the small 



I!52 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

board which stood with Bishop Spangenberg at the head of a general 
administration, there was a larger body representing different depart- 
ments, that met in stated conference. It planned minor organization 
in the several departments and the execution of plans was committed 
to the respective heads, subject to the approval of the highest cen- 
tral board. When, with the expansion of the work, a general super- 
intendent of agriculture, building operations and other externals 
became necessary, Henry Antes had so fully identified himself with 
the interests of the Economy that he was willing to assume this office, 
and removed to Bethlehem with his family in June, 1745, to take 
charge. Then everybody and everything in connection with those 
activities became subject to his ultimate supervision. 

A number of special boards and stated or occasional conferences 
were gradually instituted in connection with minor divisions of the 
several departments. There were, besides those that had to do with 
more strictly spiritual matters, and with educational concerns, a 
building committee, committees on domestic supplies, food, clothing 
and the like ; a committee associated with the physician in charge of 
the medical department, sanitary arrangements and the dispensary, 
and a corps of secretaries. Conferences were held on matters of the 
farms, dairies and stock-yards, on the different classes of manu- 
facturing industries, as these increased, and on commercial affairs. 

There was also a police committee — the Richter Collegium referred 
to in the previous chapter — which maintained law and order. Under 
the management of Spangenberg's wife, who revealed a high order 
of administrative ability, and, although of frail constitution, devoted 
herself to the tasks that came to her with untiring zeal, all the classes 
of female industry were in like manner thoroughly organized. Much 
of her time was given to meetings, not only of mothers, nurses and 
teachers, but also of the spinners, weavers, knitters, seamstresses, 
dairy-women, laundresses, and other classes. There was a general 
steward of the Economy, who had the oversight of all purchased 
supplies, for the sustenance of the colony, and of all that went to the 
culinary department from field and orchard, abattoir and dairy. With 
the relation of their respective functions nicely arranged, there stood 
with this important official, a general accountant, after it appeared 
that the duties of the steward were too onerous for him to also do all 
the book-keeping. During the years of which this chapter treats, 
Jasper Payne filled the position of steward most of the time. The 
first general accountant, as a separate official, was Christian Fred- 



1745 1748. i83 

erick Oerter. John Brownfield also performed both duties for 
a time. The strict and systematic manner in which acco'unts 
were kept is revealed by the mass of account books preserved 
in the Bethlehem archives. There remains also in manuscript a 
complete exposition of the entire system of accounts, worked out 
gradually and finally perfected by Oerter, which shows what exact 
business methods were applied throughout, down to the minutest 
details. Careful accounts, according to a prescribed method, had 
to be kept in every department, by every particular industry, farm 
and line of service. Statedly all of these had to be turned in to the 
general accountant who examined them, along with all orders and 
receipts, hundreds of which yet remain, and posted up everything in 
his general books. Those books reveal how it was possible to watch 
every detail of that elaborate Economy and keep control of the situa- 
tion on every side continually in order to prevent serious loss through 
mismanagement, carelessness or possible unfaithfulness in any quar- 
ter ; to enable those in responsible control of all to so direct, that 
business attention was centered, as occasion demanded, on those 
points where it was most needed in order that nothing might be 
undertaken that would dangerously drain resources and that no sud- 
den crisis might bring financial disaster. 

Not the least interesting evidence of Bishop Spangenberg's 
intelligent efforts to keep all classes of the people imbued with the 
religious spirit to be put into everything, however material or menial, 
to preserve sympathetic touch, foster a cheerful esprit de corps and 
awaken enthusiasm for new and difficult undertakings, from time to 
time, is to be found in the way in which the numerous gatherings of 
all classes of workers, on all kinds of occasions and for all kinds of 
purposes were managed. They usually combined a devotional, social 
and business character. With them were commonly associated a 
meal, more or less substantial, for all assembled. These were, 
according to the custom of the time, always spoken of as lovefeasts. 
Some, in reading the records of those days, have been disposed to 
make merry over the many lovefeasts, having in mind what is now 
known by that name. These occasions, utilized as they were, served 
an important purpose, in connection with many special objects, and 
in the matter of maintaining the general morale of the Economy. 
They were appreciated, too, especially by men and women employed 
at hard manual labor, with the very plain fare and almost Spartan- 
like regime that had to be habitually the order ; for besides the relaxa- 
tion thev afforded, the special, social meal was a welcome thing. 



184 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

From one point of view, those many lovefeasts were what would 
now be regarded as a wise stroke of business policy, while, in 
connection with the end of the sowing or the harvest, with the sheep- 
shearing or the completed spinning of the season, with the finishing 
of a heavy task in clearing land or erecting buildings they helped 
to invest the laborious Hfe with an idyllic charm. Where a spirit was 
maintained that prompted men to sing hymns or discourse melody 
on instruments of music when they went to the harvest field and 
when they returned from it after the burden and heat of the day ; 
when they set out for the site of a barn or a mill that was to be 
erected on some distant part of the domain ; when they proceeded 
with pick and shovel to where the cellar of a new building was to 
be excavated; or when they set out with axes, cross-cut saws, and 
equipment for a week's camping in the forest, to fell timber and 
float it down the Lehigh, cheerful and rapid work was done. 

It would, however, be far beyond the truth to represent every man in 
that Economy, especially after the lapse of some years when the num- 
ber of people had greatly increased and the novelty of the situation 
had departed, as a Christian hero, ever ready to- do and dare, and 
performing everything with cheerful self-denial as to the Lord. There 
were many weak ones to be borne with, many unsteady ones to be 
admonished ; there were discontented and ungrateful ones and 
peevish whiners from the beginning ; and now and then cases of gross 
misdemeanor and flagrant unfaithfulness occurred. Yet they were 
heroic days and, in the main, the people nobly lived up to the thought 
given them by Bishop Spangenberg, when he adopted the motto which 
Dr. Paul Anton had before applied to the establishments of Halle : In 
commune oramtis, In commune laboramus, in commune patimur. In com- 
mune gaudeamus . 

The responsibility assumed by Spangenberg and the range and 
variety of matters to which he had to give personal attention made 
his position extremely difificult, especially at the beginning when 
everything at Bethlehem and Nazareth had to be newly organized, 
careful inspection had to be given to the work at many other places, 
and the cloud that hung over the Indian missions in New York 
weighed heavily upon him. His devoted wife came near breaking 
down under the strain of her arduous duties during the first year. 
On one occasion, while her husband was absent in the Indian country, 
her tasks were so overwhelming that, when speaking to the officials 
about some matters in which she could no longer go on without 




JOHN CHRISTOPHER PYRLAEUS 

NATHANAEL SEIDEL 
JOHN CHkISTOPHER FREDERICK CAMMERHOF 



GEORGE NEISSER 



JOHN NITSCHMANN 



1745 I74S- i85 

assistance, she burst into tears. The chivalrous response to this 
pathetic appeal afforded her every relief possible, but two critical 
attacks of illness which prostrated her proved that she was taxed 
beyond her strength. It soon became clear to Spangenberg that 
the labor was too great for them. Correspondence with Zinzendorf 
was opened on the subject, with the result that, early in January, 1747, 
an assistant arrived in Bethlehem in the person of the young Bishop 
John Christopher Frederick Cammerhoff, whose wife, a gifted and 
pious young Livonian baroness, Anna von Pahlen, became the assist- 
ant overseer of the women. They reached Lewes with their company- 
bound for Philadelphia, December 28, 1746, on the snow John Galley, 
Captain Crosswaite. The ice preventing their progress up the 
Delaware, they went ashore there, made their way by land to Phila- 
delphia and reached Bethlehem, January 12. 

Cammerhoff was an extraordinary young man in natural gifts, 
learning and eloquence, as well as in piety, zeal and energy. Although 
only twenty-five years old, he had been consecrated to the episcopacy 
shortly before he started for Pennsylvania as coadjutor to Bishop 
Spangenberg. Knowing his superior qualities and his enthusiasm, 
Spangenberg welcomed him with joy. With surprising rapidity he 
learned the English language, became familiar with public affairs in 
Pennsylvania, and with American conditions generally, and mastered 
every feature of the situation and work at Bethlehem and elsewhere. 
He devoted himself with almost reckless energy to those duties 
particularly which called him into the Indian country. He undertook 
the most arduous and perilous journeys at all seasons and in any kind 
of weather, although never inured to hardships, and of physique far 
from robust. His career of inordinate activity was brief. Already in 
1 75 1, he succumbed to the strain and died at Bethlehem. Were there 

'The entire party consisted of thirteen persons, viz. besides Bishop CammerhoiT and his 
•wife, Sven Roseen, a Swede who had studied at Upsala and Jena and then joined the 
Brethren, and his wife, Anna Margaret ; John and Johanna Wade, English members ; Mat- 
thias Gottlieb Gottschalk, a theological student of the Moravian Seminary at Lindheim ; 
John Eric Westmann, later a missionary in the West Indies, at Sarepta, Russia, and in 
Guiana; Vitus and Mary Handrup; Judith Hicliel, a widow; Esther Mary Froehlich, wife 
of Christian Froehlich, now following her husband back to Pennsylvania, and another 
person not named. Four other members of the Church had arrived at Philadelphia from 
Europe since the colony of 1743, viz. in September, 1745, the fan-maker of London who 
presented the spinet brought to Bethlehem on the Little Stringth, William Peter Knolton, 
and his wife Hannah; Jarvis Roebuck, one of the sailors of the ill-fated Little Strength, 
and Eva Mary Meyer, a widow. 



1 86 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

no Other element of his personality and influence to be recalled, his 
short service would merit only great admiration. But a blemish must 
be referred to on account of what it represented and introduced. 
With his coming, the spirit of the Herrnhaag extravagances, alluded 
to in a previous chapter, was brought to Bethlehem, and, for a season, 
it threatened to inoculate the settlement, as it had those in the 
Wetterau and, to a lesser degree, others in Europe. That phenom- 
enon in the history of the Moravian Church has been aptly compared 
by one writer to the diseased condition of the heart called fatty 
degeneration. It is associated particularly with the years from 1746 
to 1750 — a period afterwards spoken of as "the time of sifting" (Luke 
22:31) — but it had its roots in preceding tendencies for which, 
primarily, Zinzendorf himself was responsible. This applies more 
particularly to his course after he returned from America in 1743. 
He infused a leaven that finally wrought things not expected, for he 
over-estimated the general quality and capacity of the human material 
worked with. 

This is to be recognized in various particulars. In his absorbing 
purpose — deemed so important — to propagate a more emphatically 
Christ-centered teaching, he neglected for a time the proportions of 
essential doctrine. In concentrating attention so exclusively on the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ, he over-developed the ideas of the people 
at one point and left them dwarfed at others. His disposition to 
discard hackneyed terms and indulge in novel expressions, in order to 
lend freshness and force to thought, produced a penchant for eccentric 
phraseology. A certain audacity with which he advanced ideas, dealt 
with subjects and experimented with measures outside of conventional 
limits, sometimes set the meat for strong men before persons who 
were intellectually and spiritually babes, needing milk. Beyond the 
bounds of prudence, he trusted the ability of lesser minds to follow, 
grasp and apply bold thoughts. The intensit}^ which he put into 
everything maintained a strain among the people under which the 
merely emotional prevailed unduly. His exuberant fancy, running 
easily into oddities, introduced a fashion in lighter kinds of religious 
versification and liturgical embellishment that was far removed from 
sober, dignified simplicity and fed a taste for the fantastic. In his 
desire to foster a genial conception of spiritual life over against the 
austere type of pietism, and, at the same time, to encourage a child- 
like constant clinging to the Saviour of sinners, as opposed to both 
legalism and perfectionism, he unwittingly occasioned a peculiar spe- 
cies of careless self-complacency in the direction of antinomianism. 



1745 1748. . i87 

These items make up the whole indictment against Zinzendorf in 
connection with the craze that broke out at Herrnhaag, where, as 
in man}- a headlong tendency, followers ran away with what leaders 
would have kept within restrictions. The Wetterau had been a con- 
gregating-place of religious enthusiasts and erratics, and a hot-bed 
of every sort of extravagance before the Brethren settled there. 
Therefore, not only over-fervid, genuinely good people, but crack- 
brained adventurers and even imposters gravitated towards Herrn- 
haag, where far less restraint was applied to admission than at 
Herrnhut. 

For a season Zinzendorf's discerning eye was withdrawn from this 
rapid and promiscuous influx. Much was left to the control of per- 
sons lacking wisdom, some of them very young and inexperienced. 
Among these was his own son. Christian Renatus, whose mind and 
temperament had all the ardor without the virility characteristic of 
his father, and whose intense adoration of the suffering Saviour was 
expressed in his well-known lines: "One passion only do I have; 'Tis 
He and none but He.'' This, as propagated there, ran into mawkish 
sentimentality and puerile language. A mania for coining extravagant 
phrases broke out, each rhymster trying to outdo the other in 
grotesque jargon; and, even in ordinary conversation, a style of 
expression came into use that degenerated into inane drivel. A rage 
for the spectacular was fostered in connection with all kinds of 
festivities. Pictorial representations of the sufferings of Christ in 
their various features were produced, so outre that at times they 
became almost sacrilegious caricatures. Transparencies and illumin- 
ations of every description abounded. The daily life of the place 
became a constant round of partly social and partly religious celebra- 
tions, with a fanatical idealizing of the congregation, as a whole, and 
of its several divisions, as organized, especially its various ofHcials, 
under the exaggerated conceit of being the special, selected favorites 
of Jesus. This relation to Him was paraded, now under the fancy 
of being spiritual children playing about the cross, and anon under 
the imagery of the Canticles. In the midst of this luxuriating, which 
involved expense, a heedless improvidence was indulged in for a 
season that brought after it a day of reckoning. Many sensible men 
in the Church eschewed and deplored these follies and protested 
against them, but in vain. 

For a while Zinzendorf paid no proper attention to the intimations 
thev ventured to give him of these excesses, which in their more 



lob A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENXSYLVAN'IA 

extreme features were hidden from him; but at last his eyes were 
opened to the peril and promptly he turned upon the perpetrators 
with a force and severity that soon restored sanity. His indignation 
was mingled with humble self-reproach, for he discerned wherein he 
had unwittingly opened the way to it all. Various traces of this 
fanaticism lingered long, but vigorous efforts put a stop to the ten- 
dencies that were perilous, some of the more culpable were weeded 
out of the membership, and the Church was saved. External tribula- 
tions followed which also had a sobering effect. 

The assailants of Zinzendorf and his work now had so much mate- 
rial to use for defamatory writing that on their side, in turn, the 
denunciation of the Count and his brethren became a kind of craze. 
That the wildest stories of gross religious aberrations and even of 
social disorders grew out of what had prevailed at Herrnhaag and 
elsewhere in the Wetterau, is not to be wondered at; especially as 
one after another knave who had gone there and lived awhile for sin- 
ister purposes, or had been detected there as a black sheep and 
expelled, circulated the most outrageous slanders which found 
credence easily because they came from professed eye-witnesses. 

Yet more serious was the blow that came when, upon the accession 
of a new, young prince to the rule of the little domain in which Herrn- 
haag lay, a series of machinations by the attorney of that prince, a bit- 
ter enemy of Zinzendorf, brought on the ruin of the flourishing settle- 
ment, because new terms and conditions were imposed, under which 
the Brethren would not remain. A succession of voluntary emigra- 
tions from the place began in 1750 and, within three years, Herrnhaag 
was left empty and desolate. Many of its people came to Penn- 
sylvania as will appear in the further narrative. In the train of these 
disasters came the most formidable financial crisis in the history of 
the Church. There will be occasion to refer to this again. Thus out 
of the "time of sifting" came trial, purging and refining. The results 
of the ordeal proved the difference between the Brethren's Church, 
in its essential character, and the various extravagant sects with 
which its enemies classed it. "The rain descended, and the floods 
came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not ; 
for it was founded upon a rock."^ 

3 This unfortunate episode is thus sketched in some detail because frequent allusions to it, 
or extended accounts are met with in the works of ecclesiastical historians which convey 
incorrect impressions. Some fail to treat the matter understandingly, some represent the 
extravagance of those years as the prevailing condition of the entire Zinzendorfian era, which 



1/45 1748. i89 

When Spangenberg discovered that his talented and enthusiastic 
young coadjutor was so thoroughly imbued with the extravagant 
spirit of the Wetterau and was introducing its language and manner 
at Bethlehem, he was at first surprised at the extent to which the 
mania had developed since he left Europe, and then alarmed, knowing 
what this new freak would entail upon the settlement and its work 
which, with all soberness and circumspection, had to proceed against 
a strong tide of prejudice and hostility in many quarters. When he, 
furthermore, made the discovery that CammerhofT had, before he 
left Europe, even been instructed on some points at variance with 
his ideas and policies— for at this time Zinzendorf was yet blind to 
the injurious follies of the tendency he was fostering — grief was added 
to alarm. But Spangenberg was too noble and loyal in heart to let 
this dampen his zeal or weaken his sense of duty, and too strong a 
man to be over-ridden or to let the work sufifer vital harm. 

He depended somewhat upon Boehler, now again in Europe, to 
properly represent the practical situation and needs. Boehler, after 
relinquishing gradually his various ad interim duties, had left Beth- 
lehem, February i6, 1745, and, with Anton Seiffert, Henry Aimers 
and wife, Paul Daniel Bryzehus and wife and Captain Garrison, had 
sailed from New York, April 8, on the Queen of Hungary, which before 
reaching England was captured by a French privateer, early in May, 
causing the passengers considerable delay and danger before they 
arrived in Europe. Boehler's knowledge. of the circumstances and 
requirements at Bethlehem was of much service in counsel at that 
time over against the view Zinzendorf was then disposed to take of 
things. 

Meanwhile material developments proceeded under the co-operative 
union that had been organized, at a rate that is surprising when 
surveyed in all particulars. In this line of operations the services of 
Henry Antes, after June, 1745, when, as stated, he removed to Beth- 
lehem, were of immense value. What was achieved in the erection of 
buildings and the opening of farms and industries during the three 
years, 1745-1748, can be best appreciated if these enterprises, great 
and small, are grouped together for mention. During the first months 



is greatly at variance with the truth, and some even use the exaggerated accounts of maligners 
of that time as sources, and reproduce fictions. In the nature of things, historians who are 
fair-minded and possessed of a proper critical sense, will take the stories of the liind of " eye- 
witnesses" referred to in the text with much suspicion because of their manifest intention 
to do the Brethren harm, out of revenge. 



190 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of 1745, operations under the new plan were commenced on the 
Nazareth land. January 13, the first log house was erected where 
the new farm that received the name Gnadenthal — Gracedale — 
was commenced ; the first spot to be cleared there having 
been measured out on January 8. It may be added that 
on December 2 of that year, the first farming household of 
six married couples, in pursuance of the plan of Antes, was 
there organized; a second, larger house, commenced the middle 
of September, having been so far completed as to be habitable. 
The erection of buildings and the extension of the cleared tract was 
also proceeded with on the Nazareth farm, near the Whitefield house, 
where, on June 25, 1747, a more distinct central organization was 
■effected, with John George Ohneberg as Elder and Matthew Schropp 
as Warden. The addition of other buildings on the Gnadenthal farm 
was being planned, besides a scheme for a central village of the manor 
to be named Gnadenhoeh — Gracehill — on the slope near where the large 
structure later called Nazareth Hall arose, while the founding of 
another to the north-east of it to be named Gnadenstadt — Graceburg — 
was had in mind, as well as the establishment of a center of agricul- 
tural and dairy industry, with a mill and other minor adjuncts near 
Gnadenthal, at what was then known as Albrecht's Brunn, but on 
August 4, 1749, was officially named Christian's Brunn — Christian's 
Spring — in honor of Zinzendorf s son — where a colony of single men 
located and organized, December 17, 1749. All of these projects were 
engaging the attention of Antes and those in counsel with him, while 
various active operations, under his general supervision, were in 
progress at Bethlehem, where Father Nitschmann, yet hale and 
energetic, was industriously laboring with a number of mechanics. 
The first important building of this period at Bethlehem to be here 
mentioned, was the tavern on the south side of the Lehigh which 
later received the name das Gasthaus sur Krone or simply die Krone — 
the Crown Inn,* commenced in December, 1744, worked at again 

4 This name is first applied to it in the records, October 18, 1756, in mentioning the en- 
trance of Ephraim Culver as inn-keeper, and was probably adopted in connection with the 
last preceding license from court. It stood almost on the site of the present railway passen- 
ger station in South Bethlehem. When closed as a public house in 1 794, it became merely the 
farm house of that one of the famous " Moravian farms" on the south side on which it stood. 
It was demolished in 1857. Some of its timbers, purchased by the late D. I. Verkes, were 
worked into one of the houses built by him and yet standing near New Street, on Second 
Street, South Bethlehem. The History of the Crown hin with its environment and associ- 
ations, including the Lehigh ferry, written by the late Prof W. C Reichel, was published 
in 1872. Barring a few minor inaccuracies in the succession of landlords and other points, 
that entertaining chronicle is a very reliable authority on the local and neighborhood history 
■of which it treats. 




ANNA NITSCHMANN 



ANNA MACK ANNA ROSINA ANDERS 

MARY ELIZABETH SPANGENBERG 
ELIZABETH BOEHLER ANNA MARIA LAWATSCH 

ANNA JOHANNA SEIDEL 



1745 1748. - igi 

in March, 1745, but delayed on account of other pressing under- 
takings, and completed in October of that year — the first building 
erected in the Lehigh Valley as a public house of entertainment. 

On October 30, Samuel Powell, mentioned in the catalogue of the 
.Sea Congregation given in Chapter V, arrived from Philadelphia 
to take charge as the first inn-keeper. There, in the following month, 
the first public book-store in the Lehigh Valley was opened by the 
Bethlehem authorities under the care of landlord Powell. His 
successor, May 31, 1746, was Frederick Hartmann, whose wife died 
.at the Inn, January 13, 1747, and on the 15th was interred on the 
near-by hill on the south side. A special burial ground^ was then 
opened for the accommodation of the vicinage and for emergency use 
in connection with the public house, and, with that first interment, 
was consecrated by Bishop CammerhofT. 

The next prominent building erected in Bethlehem was the middle 
section of the stone house now officially known among Moravian 
properties as "the old Seminary" because the boarding school for 
girls occupied it from 1749 to 1790, and called, in common local 
parlance, the "bell house." It was built originally to contain the 
refectory of the single men with a general dining-room connected 
with the Community House, and dwellings for married men and 
women, to relieve the congested quarters in the larger building and 
make several of the small log houses available for other uses. The 
foundation lines for this second stone structure in Bethlehem were 
staked off, August 24, 1745, but it was not completed and occupied 
until October of the following year. The bell turret was erected in 
June, 1746, and there the first town clock was placed. It was con- 
structed by the clock-maker Augustine Neisser, of Germantown, who 
had commenced the task the previous April, but did not complete 
it until February 15, 1747. The bells, a larger and two smaller ones, 
were cast by Samuel Powell — the same who was the first inn-keeper 

5 The site of that little cemetery can no longer be ascertained with accuracy. The oldest 
draft of lands on the south side marking it, places it on the crown of the bluff, just up from 
the well-remembered large spring at the south bank of the river, long ago buried under the 
cinders of the railway filling. From measurements on the draft it has been judged to have 
lain about thirty rods back, hence about the intersection of Second and Ottawa Streets. It 
was in use until 1763. Of the seventeen recorded interments, ten were the bodies of Indians. 
The last, October, 1763, was Captain Jacob Wetherold, who died at the Crown Inn of 
wounds received in a surprise by Indians at the house of John Stenson. It is believed, 
however, that during the Revolutionary War the remains of some soldiers were also buried 
there. 



192 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

on the south side. The weather vane, yet surmounting the little 
turret, with the historic emblem of the Church, a lamb with a banner, 
was made from a drawing by Cammerhoff. In front of the second 
story a balcony was constructed, which remained until 1766. There, 
it was long the custom for the musicians to discourse melodies, 
morning and evening on holy-days, and in connection with harvest- 
home festivals and other gatherings in the square in front of the 
house. 

During that time other structures had gradually been added to the 
equipment of the place. A mill for pressing linseed oil — for much 
flax was raised to supply the important linen-weaving industry — 
commenced in January, was finished early in February, 1745. There, 
on February 12, the first oil was pressed. Immediately upon its 
completion the carpenters proceeded to build a larger wagon-making 
shop, for of such work — wagons and carts, plows, harrows and the 
like, the Economy required much. The arrival of the first emigrat- 
ing Indians from the Shekomeko mission in New York, and the 
prospect that many of the converts would follow, in consequence of 
the continued hostility manifested towards the missions in that Prov- 
ince, led also, late in the summer of 1745, to the commencement of 
the group of Indian houses at Bethlehem. One such was laid up 
the latter part of August and finished the first week in September, 
1745, as a kind of hotel for such Indians sojourning temporarily. 
More were added later at the foot of the hill to the south-east of 
the present Seminary for Young Ladies, when the exodus from the 
missions in New York and Connecticut increased ; and the cluster 
of log cabins which there housed the refugees for a season received 
the name Friedenshucttcn — Habitations of Peace. 

In April, 1746, a building in connection with the linen-bleachery 
was added to those already standing on the Sand Island — the saw- 
mill and the laundry of the settlement. At that time, steps were also 
taken to build several more small log houses on the south side of 
the river for transient occupants, and particularly for occasional 
vise by itinerant evangelists, when quarters could not be provided in 
the village. Not far from where the cabins of Friedenshuetten were 
built, another small structure arose in May, 1746, which, although 
of no great importance, is, in the retrospect, of some topographic 
interest. This was the summer-house on the "IVuiidcii Eilaiid." 
This island was in the Monocacy Creek, at the foot of the present 
grounds in the rear of the Young Ladies' Seminary. It is marked 



1745 1748- 193 

on the oldest map of the locahty, and a depression in the grounds 
reveals where the inside channel of the stream then was. A rustic 
foot-bridge was constructed across it to the island, and there many 
interesting social meetings, official conferences and important inter- 
views with Indians took place. Its name, "the Island of the 
Wounds," meant that it was dedicated to the remembrance of the 
wounds of Jesus, as then dwelt upon in certain special liturgies and 
hymns. Closely connected with the building of Friedenshuetten, the 
Indian adjunct to Bethlehem, is to be mentioned the founding of the 
important settlement for these fugitive converts, up the Lehigh, at 
the mouth of the Mahoning Creek, which received the name Gnadcn- 
huettcn — Habitations of Grace. Their residence at Bethlehem was 
only regarded as a temporary arrangement. The first plan was to 
settle them in the Wyoming Valley, but they objected for fear of 
trouble with the savages of that region. They agreed to the pro- 
posed location just beyond the Blue Mountains. A beginning was 
made with the new settlement in May, 1746, and on June 13, after 
a love-feast on the "Wunden Eiland," the first detachment of fifteen 
set out for the place ; some in canoes and some afoot. Martin !Mack 
settled there as the first man in charge of the station, with various 
assistants from time to time. Other bands followed at intervals, 
until, at the close of the year, nearly all who had tarried at Bethle- 
hem had transferred their abode to the new place. 

They left a number of their companions behind, to be laid to rest 
in the cemetery of Bethlehem. An epidemic of small-pox broke out 
during the summer and carried of? many, among the rest, that most 
noble triumph of the power of the Gospel and most valuable Indian 
assistant to the missionaries, John Wasamapah ("Tschoop"). It 
was a trying time, for the contagion spread from the cabins of these 
poor Indians to the dwellings of their friends and protectors, not 
only at Bethlehem, but even at Nazareth; and many, both of adults 
and children, were attacked, several being taken off by it. This dis- 
arranged plans and delayed undertakings at Gnadenhuetten some- 
what, but when this circumstance is considered, the rapidity with 
which buildings were there erected and affairs were gotten into shape 
is astonishing. The locality was well-chosen and the settlement soon 
developed into a most flourishing and interesting one, much to the 
annoyance of certain white neighbors to the west and north of Beth- 
lehem, who could not be reconciled to anything the Moravians did 
and, in their prejudice and excited fear, insisted on believing it all 
14 



194 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to be only another move in the interests of the French, to the 
jeopardy of the Province. This unjust and absurd suspicion was 
intensified when, in the following year (1747), a beginning was made 
farther up at the important Indian town of Shamokin. That point 
was selected as, not only a populous place and a stronghold of 
heathenish superstition and wickedness, but, on account of its loca- 
tion and connections, a strategic point for a missionary center. A 
smithery and trading-station were there established because these 
enterprises, so important to the Indians, secured their consent to 
have missionaries locate there. Those vigilant detectives who, the 
previous winter, when lumbermen from Bethlehem built a cabin in 
the forest for shelter while felling timber, circulated the story that 
the Moravians were constructing forts up in the Mountains for the 
French and Indians, preparatory to an attack on the English settle- 
ments, now asserted that at Shamokin they had established an arsenal 
to equip the savages for the pending conflict; and that quantities of 
French powder and lead, stored at Bethlehem, were being quietly 
conveyed to that stronghold. 

This enlargement of operations in the Indian country would have 
been qtiite beyond the ability of the co-operative union at Bethlehem 
and Nazareth, with its other burdens, if substantial aid had not been 
given by numerous friends at other places, through an organization 
that Bishop Spangenberg had founded for this purpose, and that was 
now in its most flourishing state. This was "the Society for the 
Furtherance of the Gospel," which had its beginning, August 19, 
1745, at a session of the Pennsylvania Synod held at Bethlehem. Its 
organization, modeled after that of a society with the same name, 
alluded to in a previous chapter, which Spangenberg had founded 
in England in 1741, was completed, November 28, 1745, in the last 
session of another Synod held at Lancaster. That was a gath- 
ering notable, not only for its size and representative char- 
acter, but also by reason of the fact that there the wild agitation 
against the Moravians culminated in a riotous attack upon Spangen- 
berg when he undertook, at the suggestion of Justice Edward 
Smouth, to preach to the crowd from the court-house steps. This 
was the climax of what had been started in Philadelphia in 1742, 
and although the parsons who had brought on that first outbreak of 
mob violence continued their denunciations, those elements of the 
populace were not moved to any further open demonstrations, and 
a reaction began to set in after this climax. The Society, which 



1745 1748. 195 

originally consisted of thirty members, increased, in four years, to 
more than four times that number, representing about thirty locali- 
ties. About one-third of the members in 1748 were people not regu- 
larly connected with the Moravian Church. Inside of ten years it 
collected and disbursed more than £1900 in Pennsylvania currency, 
besides numerous gifts of wares of various kinds and books sent 
from Europe." 

Building operations at Bethlehem and on the Nazareth land had 
now become so extensive that increased facilities for the preparation 
of material were necessary, and two saw-mills were added to that at 
Bethlehem. The first was that at Gnadenhuetten, at which work was 
commenced, May 17, 1747. Under the wise planning of Henry Antes, 
a grist-mill was combined with it, so that only one structure and 
one water-wheel were required for both. In spite of a delay with 
the iron furnished by the Union Furnace at Durham, the mill was 
sawing lumber to float down the Lehigh, and, with stones quarried 
by Schaus at North Wales, was grinding grain to make bread for 
the Indian congregation and the missionary household at the place, 
before the close of July. Then Antes, having arranged for Schaus 
to run the mill for a season and instruct a new miller, returned to 
Bethlehem and immediately began preparations for the erection of 
another such little saw and grist-mill combined. This was up the 
Monocacy at Albrechtsbrunn, later called Christiansbrunn, as already 
stated, near the new Gnadenthal plantation. The stones for this mill 
were also gotten from North Wales by Schaus. While the carpenters 
were at work on this mill, the second week in August, 1747, an 
incident occurred which required them to turn from their task, to 
make a coffin, and which brought the history of the Indian village 
Welagomeka on the Barony of Nazareth to a pathetic end. When 
Captain John received permission from the Government, in 1742, to 
remain, like Tatemy, in the Forks of the Delaware as a land-owner 

6 That Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, organized in 1745, is the earliest mission- 
ary society in America of which any record has been produced. After 1764, when the 
introduction of new methods of collecting money for missionary work followed other causes 
of decline, such as the death of its first leaders at various places, the gradual withdrawal of 
outside support, with the more definite organization of strictly denominational work and the 
gradual disappearance of Indians from Eastern Pennsylvania, it sank into decadence. It 
had a nominal existence, however, until 1771, when the organization of its successor on a 
different basis was under consideration. After recovery from the disturbance of work, inci- 
dent to the Revolution, this new organization arose in 1787 — the present " Society of the 
United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen." 



196 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and professed Christian, he built a cabin at the "deep liole" up the 
BushkiU — then called Leheitan and Lefevre's Creek — where he 
passed his remaining days, occasionally bringing game and furs to 
Bethlehem for sale. August 9 of the year 1747, he sent to Bethlehem 
for medicine, being very ill. He died a few days later, requesting 
that his body be buried, with Christian rites, on the little Indian 
grave-yard of Welagameka, which the residents of the place had 
enclosed with a fence and kept in repair as a lesson to the Indians. 
Reposing in the coffin made at Gnadenthal, Captain John was there 
laid to rest. This was doubtless the last interment in that burial- 
ground near the Whitefield house, all traces of which — as in the case 
of the grave-yard south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem — were obliterated 
by the plow-shares of matter-of-fact Moravian farmers of the middle 
period, when the sentiment of former times had been lost and the 
historical interest of modern times was not yet cultivated. Some 
Indians, moreover, helped at the work about Gnadenthal at that 
time, among them, Gottheb, the first of the Delawares baptized 
by the Brethren, who, with some others, was permitted to tempor- 
arily sojourn there. The little Christiansbrunn mill was started — both 
saw and stones — on November 24, 1747. Its useful existence came 
to an untimely end on December 6, 1749, when it burned to the 
ground while the miller was away to his dinner at Gnadenthal. It 
was rebuilt and started again, April 17, 1750, as a saw-mill, and 
many more thousand feet of building material were turned out of 
it ; but the grinding of grist was not there resumed, for soon after- 
wards a much larger mill was built on the Bushkill to which reference 
will again be made. 

The mill at Gnadenhuetten did uninterrupted, excellent service 
until the melancholy autumn of 1755 which brought ghastly ruin 
to the place and martyrdom to the men and women stationed there. 
During the year after it was started, it produced many rafts of timber 
and boards that were floated down the Lehigh to Bethlehem for the 
next important building to be erected, more pretentious, and in the 
sequel, more historic than those just before it. This was the struc- 
ture which, with its extension of 1762, constitutes the antique central 
portion of the present Seminary for Young Ladies, now known in 
the institution as Colonial Hall, and marked with a bronze tablet 
that records a national distinction, in its use twice during the Revo- 
lutionary War, as a general hospital by the Continental Armv. It 
was built as the second "choir-house" of the single men, who needed 



1745 1748- 197 

more room, in view of large accessions expected from Europe in the 
course of the following few years, not only for dwelling, dormitory 
and chapel, but also for plying the various handicrafts associated 
with their establishment. In pursuance of the fourth item of Spang- 
enberg's "general plan" of 1744, as given at the opening of this 
chapter, it was concluded in 1746, to take this step, and then put 
their former house at the disposal of the single women, to get both 
choirs properly domiciled and organized." 

The discussion of drafted plans for the new building began in the 
autumn of 1747, first in the central executive board and then with 
the single men themselves, for it was important to arouse that kind 
of interest among them which they would take if permitted to 
participate in these consultations. One such conference between 

7 At this point a note on this system, already alluded to several times, may be inserted for 
the information of readers who are not acquainted with it. A division of the membership, 
on the basis of differing age, sex and station in life, for the purpose of specializing religious 
culture, had been gradually developed. The word chor was applied in German to each 
such division, and this was then rendered into English by the word choir. The origin is to be 
traced to the covenant of special devotion and service by eighteen young women and girls, 
May 4, 1730, (Chapter III, note 15). A code of choir-principles was eventually established ; 
a system of organization and leadership for each choir was elaborated ; regular choir-meet- 
ings, choir-liturgies and anniversary choir-festivals were introduced. Partly from practical 
necessity and partly in pursuance of the institutional conception applied at the time to all 
social and religious life, the establishment of choir-houses for the several divisions became 
a leading feature of every regular settlement. It is not surprising that something of a 
monastic character should become erroneously associated in the popular mind, with these 
houses. But such was never the case. No bonds or vows of any kind ever obligated any 
occupant, although a very careful discipline and punctilious order prevailed. Such a term 
as "Moravian nuns" is simply nonsense, and even the word "sisterhood" never had any 
meaning in the Moravian Church, except in so far as it could be applied to all women, 
married, single or widowed who were members, for all were called " sisters," as all the 
men were called " brethren." It is true that ZinzendorPs disposition to follow out every 
idea to the uttermost, when he started with it, and to e.\perimentally apply it to the extreme 
of particularity, led to much that was over-wrought in this system, and produced an artificial 
and, in some features, unnatural ecclesiastico-social structure, in place of normal family 
relations and home-life ; yet, for many years, the choir-houses served an excellent purpose. 
Then decadence, especially in the case of those of the men, began in the American settle- 
ments of the Church before the close of the eighteenth century, and gradually, in the course 
of the next half-century, they all became obsolete, although, in most cases, the old names 
remained connected with the buildings. In Europe a few are yet maintained in a modified 
character. The choir-divisions of the membership, with the observance of the annual 
choir-festivals, are yet retained in some of the old congregations in America. The choir- 
houses of the single men and the single women will, for the sake of brevity, be usually 
mentioned in these pages, after this, by the common name, " Brethren's House," and 
•' Sisters' House." 



190 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

them and Bishop Spangenberg, early in November, lasted until two 
o'clock in the morning. On November 7, the building-site was selected, 
"where a new road was to be opened to the river" — the present J\Iain 
Street, from Church Street south — and the proposed building was to 
be "the corner house next to the Monocacy." Now offers of contri- 
butions for the purpose came, to encourage the young men in the 
undertaking. Sister Spangenberg headed the list with £100. Other 
early contributors were Sister Cammerhoff, Antes, Dr. Meyer, Martin 
Mack, John Bonn, formerly of Skippack, John Hopson, later promin- 
ent at Lancaster, giving sums ranging from f 100 to £25. Bonn also 
offered to give the shingles. Thus they were inspired to begin their 
efforts, while, at the same time, they were impressed with the necessity 
of doing as much of the work themselves as possible, because of 
the high wages that had to be paid mechanics at that time, and the 
general expensiveness of building operations in Pennsylvania. On 
December 19, the fourth of successive plans for the building was 
discussed with them and adopted. January 10, 1748, the site was 
staked off, fifty by eighty-three feet. The single men gathered and 
marched in procession to the spot after working-hours in the evening, 
accompanied by music, and, after a prayer and the singing of a hymn, 
they commenced to excavate the cellar. This task was continued 
on successive evenings by moonlight. During the following weeks 
the timber was cut in the neighborhood of Gnadenhuetten, and in 
the spring was sawed at that place. The first raft came down the 
river at the end of March. Others followed at intervals, until, on 
July 17, twenty small rafts reached Bethlehem, containing the last 
of it. "Now there is enough," writes the diarist. In Frederick 
Township other men had been busy with frow and mallet, shaving- 
horse and drawing-knife, converting the straight-grained blocks into 
the kind of shingles that endured, to make up John Bonn's donation, 
and on July 10, the last lot of sixteen hundred came to Bethlehem. 
At the same time, others were busy at the Bethlehem stone-quarry; 
for more stone were needed for this than any previous build- 
ing. The corner-stone was laid at the north-west corner of the 
foundation on April 7, with elaborate services. A document was 
deposited in it containing a lengthy inscription, the names of all 
the officials of the Economy and a complete list of the Single 
Brethren. April 23, four masons hired elsewhere, joined a few 
days later by four Bethlehem masons, began to lay up the walls. 
The last week in Mav, two fine stones from the bed of Potsdam 



I74S 1748. 199 

sand-stone, in the bluff across the river, were secured, to be squared 
for lintels over the main door-ways, front and rear. They were 
placed in position, June 24, ornamented with inscriptions which be- 
trayed the influence of Cammerhoff. That on the north side read: 
Vater, Mutter, Lieber Mann — Habt Ehr voni Jimgling's Plan. The stone 
on the south side contained the words, Gloria Pleura,^ and had a sun- 
dial in the center, while above this was a star, and beneath it the 
figures 1748. 

The framework of the roof having been raised on August i, a love- 
feast was held the next day on the floor of the house, to which 
"all who could come, both old and young, were invited, for all had 
helped in some way." A harvest festival was combined with it, the 
people being ranged in semi-circular rows, with the little children 
in the center. On November 14, the building was so nearly com- 
pleted that it could be occupied. That day, after partaking of the 
Communion in their former house, the single men marched in 
procession with music, to the new building and took formal pos- 
session of it. The next day they transferred the furniture and, 
November 16, the edifice was regularly dedicated with impressive 
ceremonies. That night seventy-two young men, after thei con- 
clusion of these services with an evening hymn in the large 
dormitory, lay down to rest the first time in those commodious 
quarters. The previous daj' the single women and girls — twent}-- 
one of the former and twenty-nine of the latter — who had come 
down in a body on the 13th, from Nazareth, where they had been 
domiciled since June i, 1745, took possession of the former house 
of the single men, and on that day, November 15, 1748, it became 
the Sisters' House". 

8 These enigmatical plirases have been quoted incorrectly, and without elucidation, by 
several writers describing this building. The first is simply an ascription of praise to the 
Holy Trinity, in the thought and language of the Herrnhaag extravagance, which has been 
explained. It means the Father, the Holy Spirit, " the Comforter " as a mother, and the 
Son, the "supreme man." Jungling's Plan- — young men's plan— meant the organized body 
of young men, with their whole system and round of activity. The word Plan, as used in 
German, was a favorite term of Zinzendorf, and was variously applied to a scheme, system, 
sphere or field of labor, or even an organization. The other inscription, Gloria Pleura, a 
phrase much in vogue at that period, was in adoration of the vicarious sufferings of Christ, 
as most specifically contemplated in His pierced side, when they reveled, with exaggerated 
imagery, in the thought more soberly expressed in the lines : " Rock of ages cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee, Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which 
flowed," etc. 

9 One book on the history of Bethlehem, much read and quoted, contains the absurd state- 
ment that half of the new house was intended for the young women. 



200 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

At this time, the number of single men at Bethlehem had already 
increased by fifteen. On June 25, the Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube, 
who subsequently filled a conspicuous place among the missionaries 
to the Indians, in connection with the founding of the first Moravian 
settlement in North Carolina and in the ministry of the Church 
generally; an alummis of the University of Jena and a man of 
eminent gifts, arrived at Bethlehem with fourteen other young 
men^". They had landed at New York, with five others brought 
from Europe by Captain Garrison to make up part of the crew of 
the new church-ship, then being fitted out at New York for her 
first voyage. 

The building of this vessel deserves more than a brief notice, 
because her fourteen voyages, from 1748 to 1757, have such an 
important relation to people and things at Bethlehem. In 1744, not 
long after the loss of the Little Strength, it was decided to have such 
a ship built and put in command of Captain Garrison, to transport 
colonists to Pennsylvania. The contract was given to a ship-builder 
of Staten Island, John Van Deventer, whose yard was near the 
present Port Richmond and whose family name is kept in remem- 
brance in Van Deventer's Point. It was evidently commenced early 
in 1745, for on February 7, Captain Garrison reported "good 
progress." 

On account of changeable instructions from Zinzendorf and delay 
in the receipt of money from abroad, the work proceeded very slowly 
during the next two years. In January, 1747, it was decided to 
procure the rigging, cables and anchors from England, on account of 
the high price of such materials in New York. It was the intention 
to have the figure of a lamb beak the prow, but in the following April 
it is recorded that the carver "could not make a lamb in shape to 
suit the purpose," and thereupon it was decided to have a lion as 
figure-head. Thomas Noble, of New York, who had acted as 
financial agent of the enterprise, had died in 1746, and Timothy 

10 The others who arrived at Bethlehem with Grube were ; 

John George Bitterlich, Christian Pfeiffer, 

Andrew Broksch, Gottfried Roemelt, 

John George Geitner, Jeremiali Schaaf, 

Joseph Hobsch, Christian Schmidt, 

Gottfried Hoffmann, Paul Schneider, 

Matthew Kunz, John Seiftert, 

Paul Paulsen, Samuel Wuetke. 



1745 1748. 20I 

Horsfield, of Long Island — later of Bethlehem — now had charge. 
Beyond caulking the vessel, no progress was made during the sum- 
mer of 1747, but early in 1748, the work was gone at vigorously, with 
a view to getting her ready for service as soon as possible. On 
April 25, it was reported at Bethlehem she would be ready for 
launching in May, and that the ship-builder had kindly consented to 
have the customary riotous demonstrations of sailors, ship-carpenters 
and others, dispensed with at the launch. This took place on May 29, 
when the vessel was "christened" the Iren-e. She was towed to the 
"old slip" on the East River front and docked there. May 31, to 
be finished, rigged and gotten ready for the first voyage, under 
Captain Garrison's personal supervision. The total cost was about 
iiSoo. The vessel was launched free of debt, through the help of a 
gift by Bishop Spangenberg, of the larger part of a legacy of £1082 
which he had received from the estate of Thomas Noble. The Irene 
was of the class called a snow; was larger than the Catherine or the 
Little Strength and was very solidly built. Her keel was 85 feet and 
her depth of hold 9 feet 9 inches. Spangenberg reported at Beth- 
lehem that a person could walk upright between her decks and 
that she was "as strong as a tower." She was registered at New 
York in July, in the name of Henry Antes, as a naturalized free- 
holder of Pennsylvania ; he having executed a declaration of trust to 
the Brethren. Her registry describes her as "plantation-built," i. e., 
at a colonial ship-yard, and "of eighty tons burthen, mounted with 
two guns and navigated by nine men." Captain Garrison advertised 
her, in the last week of June, to sail, August i, "for Amsterdam 
direct," and took on a general cargo. She was detained, however, 
until the end of August. She was gotten out of the dock on August 
31, but on account of adverse wind, the next three days were con- 
sumed in the passage down the bay. On September 4, Bishop 
Cammerhoff and Westmann of Bethlehem, with some friends from 
New York, joined with the Captain and crew in a parting lovefeast 
on board, after which they left her and she put out to sea on her 
maiden voyage. There were twenty-nine persons on board. Nicholas 
Garrison, master ; Christian Jacobsen and John Christian Ehrhardt, 
mates ; Andrew Schoute, Jarvis Roebuck, William Okely, Gottlieb 
Robbins, Martin Christiansen, William Edmonds, Thomas Kemper, 
Jean and Jacobus Van der Bilt, sons of Jacobus Van der Bilt of 
Staten Island — the first a sailor and the second cabin boy — consti- 
tuting the crew. With them sailed also Vitus Handrup and wife who 



202 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

had come over with Cammerhoff, but now returned dissatisfied to 
Europe. The rest were passengers whose names do not appear. 
They reached the Texel, November i. Then Captain Garrison began 
to make preparations for the return voyage, on which he was to 
bring over a larger colony than any that had yet come to Pennsyl- 
vania. 

In addition to these more important operations, a variety of minor 
improvements, new equipments, and extensions of room and facilities 
for growing local needs are mentioned in the records of those years. 
Some of these may be noted. Early in 1747, an evidence of concern 
for the purity of Bethlehem's highly-prized water supply, which was 
the first chief attraction of the spot in 1740, appears. It was thought 
desirable by the village board to better guard the spring, and, in 
March, Matthew Weiss, by their order, enclosed it with a fence to 
keep away domestic animals and barn-yard fowls ; and he and Joseph 
Powell were appointed to clean it "in the light of the moon;" this 
having been declared the best time by men who possessed "Penn- 
sylvania knowledge," like William Frey, a neighbor of Antes in 
Frederick Township, who had followed the example of the latter in 
temporarily placing his farm at the disposal of the Brethren to help 
support their important school there opened, and who was at this 
time living at Bethlehem — a valuable man in the work of developing 
the extensive agricultural industry. In May of that year, a large 
addition to the grain-storing quarters was built, and in June a new 
foot-bridge took the place of the primitive one constructed across 
the Monocacy near the spring, in 1741. The history of "freshets" at 
Bethlehem also began in 1747. On February 28, the ferry was torn 
from its moorings by the raging waters, because Bishop Spangen- 
berg's suggestion to fasten it more securely was not heeded by the 
men in charge; and it was carried down to the Delaware, where 
their friend, David Martin of Delaware ferry fame, recovered and 
purchased it. It was replaced by a new one at Bethlehem on June 
8, a few days after Mr. Martin opened negotiations with the Beth- 
lehem boat-builders to construct a new flat for him. At the close of 
the year 1747, when the howling winds of winter were making the 
numerous large wood fires seem dangerous, sundry new regulations 
and precautions were adopted in this matter, and certain men were 
selected and instructed as a kind of "bucket brigade" to be ready at 
a moment's notice, according to a system of turns arranged, to 
come to the rescue, if, perchance, something else than the logs on 



1745 1748. 203 

the hearth should begin to burn. This is the eariiest trace of steps 
towards a fire department. Orchards and gardens received diHgent 
attention at this period, and, in planting fruit trees, ornamentation 
as well as utility was had in view. Some years later the results at 
the blossoming and the bearing season evoked much admiration 
from visitors. 

In March, 1747, the extensive garden of the single men's estab- 
lishment was laid out "back of their house," with the understanding 
that a portion of it should be devoted to growing medicinal herbs 
for the laboratory and pharmacy ; it having been agreed at a medical 
conference, shortly before, that special attention should be given 
to studying the flora of the region. Men were appointed to collect such 
herbs as had become known. The first one entrusted with this duty 
was Joachim Sensemann. The minutes of that same conference 
record that the virtues and various uses of different plants and shrubs 
were discussed, snake root and sassafrass berries being particularly 
mentioned. The remark is made, in the next session, that Doctor Otto 
was over-worked and had not a sufficient supply of medicines ; and 
it was decided, that when they were in Bethlehem, James Greening, 
who had served his time as an apothecary's apprentice in England, 
and Owen Rice, who possessed considerable knowledge of medicines, 
should assist him in the laboratory. Dr. Meyer had at this time 
removed from the neighborhood to the establishment opened on the 
farm of Antes. It is mentioned in those minutes that a certain 
balsam prepared at Bethlehem had become so celebrated that an 
imitation of it was sold in New York, as "Doctor Schmidt's Balsam." 
It was sagely concluded that the prices in the apothecary shop and 
the charges for bleeding persons should not be fixed too low, for this 
suggested the bungler or the quack. It was furthermore decreed 
that Doctor Otto should also perform the somewhat unprofessional 
task of compiHng a collection of the most valuable household recipes 
in use among people, for general reference, and the physician did 
not seem to manifest any contempt, when certain salves and plasters 
among "home remedies" prepared by experienced Pennsylvania 
women, that had become known to members of Bethlehem's Board 
of Health, were mentioned as desirable items of this repertory. The 
heavy mortality during the epidemic of small-pox had led to more 
thorough measures to prevent disease, as well as to better equipment 
for treatment. 

While gardens were being laid out, and the general surroundings 
of the houses gotten into more sightly shape, the cemetery also 



204 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

received special attention. On August 14, 1748, the first complete 
plan of this sacred spot, and of its proposed extension and embellish- 
ment, was finished, to be sent to Europe. The record states that 
up tO' that time, 109 interments had been made in this "labora- 
torium"^^ — 64 males and 45 females, or according to choirs, 9 married 
men, 10 married women, 12 single men, i single woman and "j"] 
children. This included the Indians buried there. Those graves 
of Indians, side by side in the rows with missionaries and 
teachers, artisans and farmers, all marked and cared for alike, 
with no distinction — a characteristic subsequently perpetuated in 
that interesting place of burial — were not only significant of the 
spirit and principle fostered by the Brethren, but, when considered 
in connection with the nationalities represented by the various stones 
which then already marked the resting places of departed members, 
added to the striking evidence it furnished of the cosmopolitan 
population of the place. The like of it could not have been found 
in any other settlement in America, no larger nor older than Beth- 
lehem. 

This characteristic of the place was set forth in a novel way, 
already in 1745, in a fanciful diversion that came into vogue, and 
was customary for a few years at Bethlehem, as well as at centers 
of the Church in Europe, particularly on special missionary occasions. 
This was polyglot singing, when companies were gathered in which 
persons of various nationalities and languages, or at least persons 
acquainted with such languages, were present. One such occasion 
was on August 21, 1745, the thirteenth anniversary of the departure 
from Herrnhut of Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann to begin 
the first missionary work of the Moravian Church among the heathen. 
Then the same verses, as rendered in English, German, Swedish, 
Danish, and Jewish-German, were sung simultaneously to the same 
tune, by persons whose native tongue belonged to this list. It was 
observed on that occasion that eighteen languages were spoken 
among converts of Moravian evangelists in different countries. 
Another such object-lesson in song was given on September 4, 
following. Three davs before that, Pvrlaeus, master of the school 



II In this term, as applied to the cemetery, another interesting specimen of the odd phrase- 
ology introduced by Cammerhoff appears. Elsewhere occurs, for interment, the expression 
" in das Laboralorium auf den Test bringen " — to put into the cupel in the laboratory — 
and '■'■ zur verwandelung des Fleisches'''' — transmutation of the flesh — in the sense of I Cor. 
15 : 44, "sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body." 



1745 1748. 205 

of Indian languages at Bethlehem — transferred, August 8, 1747, to 
Gnadenhuetten, where it was continued until the destruction of that 
mission in 1755 — had rendered the first verses from the German 
hymnal into the Mohican language, to the tune. In Duke Juhilo. At 
that lovefeast, on September 4, thirteen languages figured in the 
polyglot harmony; academicians, missionaries and residents of 
Bethlehem from various European countries ; men who were masters 
of three or four languages and Indian converts, uniting their voices 
in the strains, accompanied by the music of wind and stringed instru- 
ments. The languages were Bohemian, Dutch, English, French, 
German, Greek, Irish, Latin, Mohawk, Mohican, Swedish, Welsh, 
Wendish; and it was stated that three persons representing yet 
other languages were present who did not contribute a stanza; 
Matthew Reuz the Dane, Matthew Hancke the Pole and Christopher 
Baus the Hungarian. In connection with demonstrations of this 
kind, the desire was increased to cultivate the musical talent of Beth- 
lehem to a higher degree of excellence and serviceableness. There 
is mention, occasionall}-, of fine music rendered by Pyrlaeus ; 
of cantatas arranged by Oerter and verses composed and set to 
music by Neisser, who seems to have been the most skillful in the 
preparation of scores. At a conference on this subject in October, 
1747, it was stated that Spangenberg, who had organized the first 
Collegium Musicum at Herrnhut, and was much interested in this sub- 
ject, in the midst of his heavy responsibilities and arduous labors in 
more important matters, thought the prospect, just then, not encour- 
aging for bringing the orchestra up to a proper churchly ideal. At 
a meeting of the Bethlehem Colkgium Musicum, on January 14, 1748, 
it was noted that the organization then numbered fourteen, mostly 
single men and older boys. Their leader, Pyrlaeus, being at that 
time stationed at Gnadenhuetten, they were drilled by John Eric 
Westmann, who devoted one hour each evening to this task. On 
that occasion a subscription list was opened for a fund to purchase 
instruments. Increased effort is apparent in cultivating musical 
talent among the children at this period. 

In this connection, in order to preserve continuity in the course 
of events in school work noted, the movements in this department 
since its last mention may be reviewed. May 28, 1745, the girls' 
school was transferred from Bethlehem to the Whitefield House 
at Nazareth. The whole body of the single women then at Beth- 
lehem followed on June i, to live there until a Sisters' House 
could be provided. They remained until November 13, 1748, as 



206 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

already stated. At Nazareth, some were employed in the instruction 
and care of these girls and others at various industries. On July 27, 
1746, George Whitefield, now again for a while, on cordial terms with 
the Moravians, made his first and only visit to the spot which he once 
owned and intended to render notable by charitable and educational 
work. This household and school of girls — there were twenty-eight 
then, of whom six were Indian girls — afforded him great pleasure, as a 
work built on the foundation of his attempt, and caused him to 
exclaim, "can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? come 
and see." (John i :46.) June 3-10, 1745, the boys taken to Nazareth 
by Francke in July, 1743, were transferred with some other boys 
from Bethlehem in detachments, down to the farm of Henry Antes in 
Frederick Township, as the nucleus of the more extensive estab- 
lishment now opened there ; with Francke as superintendent joined by 
Dr. Adolph Meyer and a corps of assistants in secular and religious 
instruction and manual training, together with farmers and a miller, 
to operate the whole plant, as left by Antes for the support of the 
institution. 

Meanwhile, the youngest boys and girls of the Economy — later 
spoken of as "the nursery children" — remained at Bethlehem and 
were newly quartered in a room made vacant for them in the apart- 
ments of the married women. Besides these, only a few boys learning 
trades, and a few older girls in domestic service were retained at 
Bethlehem, and special evening school was kept for their benefit 
when circumstances permitted. In 1745, moreover, the first steps 
were taken towards the opening of such institutions^- at some 
other points, which require mention here, because they all came into 



I' It must be borne in mind that, while, the most suitable common word school is applied 
to those early establishments, they were not distinctly schools in the modem acceptation 
of the term. The German word used for them all, at the time, was Anstalt. Their para- 
mount purpose was close religious culture. In some cases they could be called boarding- 
schools, as that term is now understood. They constituted separate special households for 
children. Along with the religious and secular education imparted — the latter varying in 
scope and prominence according to circumstances — the boys and girls living in such house- 
holds were trained to various useful occuimtions, to which a portion of their time was sys- 
tematically devoted. In general, they had the two-fold object in view of properly caring for 
the children of the members who were giving all their time either to missionary service or 
to the work of the co-operative union, in field, shop and mill, and, under existing arrange- 
ments, could not live together as separate families and care for their children in their own 
homes ; and of undertaking the education and training of other children entrusted to them, 
as a department of the home-missionary activity. 



1745 1748. 207 

connection, in the course of many shiftings, with the eventual con- 
centration again at Bethlehem and Nazareth. 

A first official discussion, on September 6, 1745, followed by others, 
and a final one on the "Wunden Eiland" with representatives from 
the Maguntsche neighborhood, on August 7, 1746, led to the estab- 
lishment of a school there. A log school-house was built and on 
February 6, 1747, Christopher Demuth opened the school with forty 
children who had been enrolled, to which number some well-trained 
children from Nazareth were added "as a salt." January 13, 1746, 
eight men from Germantown came to Bethlehem with a petition to 
again have a boarding-school opened there. The Rev. John Bechtel, 
who through Mr. Boehm's untiring efiforts had been thrust out of 
the charge he had served gratuitously for many years, intending to 
remove to Bethlehem — he came with his wife and youngest daughter 
Susannah on September 24, following — offered his Germantown 
house and garden for the purpose. The project was submitted to 
a synod at Philadelphia in April, when a local committee of ten was 
appointed to carry it out, and the institution was opened, September 
21, 1746, as a boarding and day-school for both sexes, with a corps 
of competent and trust-worthy men and women in charge, and some 
boys and girls from Fredericktown and Nazareth as a trained 
nucleus. Jasper Payne, the efficient steward of Bethlehem for some 
years, with his wife, had charge of the general management for a 
season. Others associated with it, during its existence of less than 
three years, were John Christopher Heyne, an able instructor who 
served also at the other school-stations ; Greening, already mentioned 
several times ; Schaub and his wife, whose names figure prominently 
in connection with the Crown Inn at Bethlehem and the later Rose 
Inn to the north of Nazareth — they having to do with the manage- 
ment of the externals — and various single women. Bechtel's daughter 
Susannah, with her husband John Levering, to whom she was married 
at Bethlehem in 1747, was also connected with it for a season. They 
likewise assisted at the Fredericktown school for a while. One of 
the most faithful and valuable Germantown supporters of that under- 
taking was the widow of Michael Leibert, Barbara Leibert, whose 
daughter was among the school girls at Nazareth. 

Furthermore, it was decided, July 4, 1746, to open a school for 
"boys in "the Great Swamp," in the house of Joseph Mueller who had 
accompanied Zinzendorf to Europe, where among other things, he 
■was studying medicine with a view to future usefulness in Pennsyl- 



208 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

vania in combined capacities. His premises, at this time, were in 
charge of Antes. That school was started, the first week in the 
following November, "for boys who had learned bad habits and 
whom it was not desirable to have with those in the other insti- 
tutions." It was a kind of reformatory. Its maintenance there being 
encumbered with special difficulties, it was transferred, May 24, 
1747, to the Ysselstein farm house,^^ south of the Lehigh at Beth- 
lehem ; an agreement for the purchase of this property for Beth- 
lehem having been made, the previous year, by Antes with 
the second husband of the widow Ysselstein, Abraham 
Boemper. Therefore, just before the close of the year 1748, 
the only organization of children in Bethlehem was that of 
the quite young children already mentioned. Such other boys 
and girls who were then at the place, and a few at Gnaden- 
thal and Nazareth, were engaged in various capacities, constituting 
the nucleus of the subsequent choirs of older boys and girls organized 
independently of the boarding-schools. Now, however, the transfer, 
in November, of the girls of the Nazareth institution, with the single 
women, to Bethlehem constituted the first step in important changes 
of the entire school-economy which will be treated of in the ne.xt 
chapter. The children living at Bethlehem were also transferred 
to new quarters in November, preparatory to these changes. One 
of the two log houses which for many years stood to the west of the 
Community House, on the site of the present Moravian Church — 
although the records make hardly any mention of their erection — 
was built, as it seems, at this time ; and in that, these young children, 
and, temporarily, the few widows living at Bethlehem, were appar- 
ently now quartered. All the other boys and girls of the Economy, 
with the other children placed under the care of the Brethren, were 
distributed in the institutions at Fredericktown, Germantown and 
Maguntsche ; besides the few troublesome ones in the Ysselstein 
house on the south side, figuring among the population of that 
neighborhood with which the people of Bethlehem stood in relations 
of various kinds. 



i.^ That first school in what is now South Bethlehem — a school for bad boys — is interest- 
ingly mentioned by the author of The Crown Inn, as in the house of David Boehringer, 
whose name at the time was often mentioned in connection with it. That it was the Yssel- 
stein house seems to have escaped the observation of that usually accurate writer. 
Boehringer, and others occupied it jointly for a season. The project of establi.shing a 
hattery in the house, as mentioned in The Crmun //;;/, was never really consummated. 



1745 1/48. 209 

In references which the records of this period contain to neighbors 
across the river, some new names and new movements appear which 
have connection, in one way or another, with the gradual acquisition 
of property on that side by Bethlehem. The name of Paul Sieg is 
met with between May, 1746, and the spring of 1747, as a tenant in 
one of the houses there owned by the Brethren. In June, 1746, Jost 
A/ollert, already referred to in connection with the Crown Inn, who 
had first visited Bethlehem in January, 1745, became one of the resi- 
dents of those outskirts of the settlement, occupying a house built in 
1742 by Tobias Weber. His two tracts of 81 and 114^2 acres, now 
"the Hellener place," being held by an uncertain title, were conveyed 
anew by proprietary patent, in March, 1757, when the Moravians 
became their purchasers. Vollert will be met with again at a later 
time at the "point of the Forks," in connection with an episode in 
which Bethlehem figured there, after the town that became the seat 
of the new county was founded. More interesting, because the site 
of their domicile within the present precincts of Lehigh University, 
was, during the period after they had been forgotten and before they 
had again been brought to remembrance, invested with a kind of 
myster}^ are the occupants of "the old man's place," Valentine 
Loescher and his wife. They were an aged couple when they first 
found a place in the local chronicle, on the occasion of a friendly 
visit by Joachim Sensemann, who took them a present of eatables 
with the good wishes of the Bethlehem people, on December 6, 1746. 
No man has recorded whence or how they reached that lonely cabin 
on the mountain-side, or by whom and when it was built. They 
were poor, humble, pious people. Their names are associated with 
the first recorded discussion of an artificial water-supply on the south 
side, for the tavern and the institution in which boys who were not 
good were to be placed in training. This was on April 24, i747> 
when it was suggested in a board-meeting that "the spring at old 
Loescher's" might be utilized. When visited by Bishop Spangen- 
berg during the summer of 1748, the old man was found cutting a 
better path from his house down the hill, so that, when he should 
die, the Brethren could more easily bear his remains to the grave. 
But he was not destined to end his days there. In 1751 the tract 
on which his home stood was surveyed by Nicholas Scull, Jr., the 
Bethlehem authorities having secured a proprietary title to it. 
Loescher was a squatter, but he was left in undisputed possession. 
In 1752, Henry, an Indian, died there of small-pox, and was buried 
15 



210 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.^ 

in the grave-yard "near the tavern," and shortly after that, an infant 
of his widow which also died a few weeks later and was buried at 
the same place, was baptized in the house of the old people by one 
of the Bethlehem clergy. On January ii, 1756, when the bands of 
savages roaming through the woods in those days of terror made 
their situation very dangerous, they were conveyed away "to their 
children at Philadelphia," and with this their history closes. In the 
summer of 1765, the logs of the house were moved down to the river 
and there laid up again in a dwelling for the ferryman. Another 
temporary resident of the south side, whose name does not other- 
wise figure among the people of Bethlehem, was Henry Guth, who 
occupied quarters on the Ysselstein farm, after the widow transferred 
her residence across to Bethlehem in 1745. The burial is recorded, 
September 8, 1747, of John Vaas (Fahs), "an old neighbor towards 
Maguntsche." It is mentioned elsewhere that he had tried the 
merits of the "healing waters" of the Chalybeate springs up in the 
Blue Mountains that had attracted the notice of the Brethren in 
1746, when traveling to Gnadenhuetten, and were discussed by the 
medical conference. 

Relations were generally cordial between Bethlehem and the 
people south of the Lehigh, throughout the Saucon Valley. They 
did not seem to take a sinister view of the prosperous advance made 
by the intelligent and united industry of the Moravians, or to become 
much excited by the bugaboo of peril to Protestant government 
through their presence and activities, like some of their neighbors to 
the northward, whose minds were inflamed by this agitation and 
who thought it their duty to try to influence the government against 
them, as had been done in New York. It seemed impossible at that 
time to convince them otherwise. This inimical attitude, carried to 
the extent of studied annoyance in various matters which concerned 
both parties in neighborhood affairs by certain of the people, led 
the authorities at Bethlehem to take steps for better guarding their 
interest in connection with such affairs, and with public matters 
generally. These interests were becoming sufficiently important, 
even in a purely material sense, that they could not be meekly left 
unprotected, to be continually harassed by adverse manoeuvres 
inspired by groundless prejudice. One such step was to escape 
from the jurisdiction of a magistracy appointed from among and 
swayed by men who cherished this disposition ; strangely blind to the 
benefits which the people of the surrounding country and they them- 



1745 1748- 211 

selves would enjoy through what was being done at Bethlehem to 
open up and develop the region, to increase its enlightened and 
orderly population, to advance all kinds of public improvements 
and try to transform the savages on the borders into civilized and 
Christian men. Accordingly, in response to representations from 
Bethlehem, Henry Antes, then the most suitable and competent man, 
was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Governor and Council 
of Pennsylvania, December 17 O. S., 1745, to have jurisdiction at 
Bethlehem and on the Barony of Nazareth. He was duly proclaimed, 
whereof Secretary Richard Peters, on June 5, 1746, brought notice 
to him at Bethlehem, with the announcement of his right, in this 
capacity, to attend the next session of the Bucks County Court at 
Newtown. There, on June 22, he was sworn in and, on June 25, 
received his written commission "to keep the peace within his juris- 
diction, and to keep and cause to be kept all ordinances and statutes 
for the good of the peace and for the preservation of the same, and 
for the quiet rule and government of the people ; to chastise and 
punish all persons that ofifend against the ordinances and statutes," etc. 
Just a month later, a high-handed instance of the kind of vexation 
from which the Bethlehem people sought to escape by having a 
magistrate with their domain as his jurisdiction, independent of 
others, occurred in an unwarranted use of civil office by a neighbor- 
ing justice, to worry them and bring odium upon them before the 
public, under the pretense of zeal for law and religion. The precious 
harvest of 1746, on which so much depended, was imperiled by con- 
tinual rain to such an extent that, at the end of July, the situation 
was becoming desperate. On Sunday, July 31, the first clear, dry 
day for more than a week, the men who lived on the Nazareth tract 
determined, after the morning service, to get in the cut grain, much 
of which was perishing in the field. They concluded that, under the 
circumstances, this rescue of their bread for the coming winter would 
be a justifiable "work of necessity," within the meaning of the law. 
A- spy hastened to inform the constable of the "Irish Settlement" 
who, towards evening, came upon the scene with some others and 
demanded their names, with a view to lodging complaint against 
them, as "Sabbath breakers," before the justice of that settlement. 
The grain was safely housed and they closed the day with a service 
of thanksgiving and a meal together of bread and milk. On August 
3, that constable, armed with a warrant from the said justice, went 
to Gnadenthal to make arrests. Antes, who had to be away from 



212 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

home for several days, had instructed them that if this happened, 
they should deny the right of another justice to thus invade his juris- 
diction, and submit to arrest only under force. The arrests were not 
then made. The next day, while this alleged new evidence of con- 
tempt for the law of the land, and for Protestant sentiment and cus- 
tom, and this supposed alien defiance of the government on the part 
of the Moravians was being warmly discussed in the neighborhood, 
those same Moravians at Bethlehem and Nazareth were engaging in 
the only services of thanksgiving held in the Forks of the Delaware in 
compliance with the proclamation of the Governor, for the victory 
of the British arms over the forces of the Pretender, whose secret 
emissaries they were charged by those neighbors with being. On 
August 6, the aforesaid constable suddenly appeared at Bethlehem, 
with a posse of thirty excited and boisterous men, to make the arrests 
by force, in the face of a written notice from Justice Antes that the 
whole affair lay in his jurisdiction and that the other justice was 
exceeding his authority. Antes was at Bethlehem and tried to rea- 
son with them, but, seeing that this was in vain and that they were 
bent upon creating a disturbance to the scandal of the place, he 
waived the point of non-jurisdiction, and trusting the good sense and 
fairness of the court, as well as its ability to discern the real animus 
and purpose of the whole procedure, gave bond for the appearance 
of all named in the warrant. The constable, being thus assured, as 
he supposed, of receiving his fees eventually, left with this. The 
disagreeable fiasco terminated in September, when the Nazareth men 
were exonerated without costs. Another matter that required atten- 
tion, in self-defense, was the injustice to which they were subjected 
in the assessment of taxes ; this being, up to 1747, controlled entirely 
by inimical persons. On February 23, 1747, when the court had 
examined the statement and protest from Bethlehem and recognized 
that the Moravians were being unfairly taxed in comparison to their 
neighbors, the Sheriff of Bucks County came to Bethlehem to con- 
sult with Justice Antes about the matter. The result was that on 
March 13, Antes returned from court with a concession granted in 
the rate, and authority to collect the taxes in his jurisdiction. 

A third matter that caused some complications was the laying out 
of roads, northward and westward, in which a studied disregard for 
the plans of the Brethren in the location of stations on the Naza- 
reth land, was shown by other parties concerned. In ]\Iay. 1746, the 
first unofficial road to Gnadenhuetten was traced throue'h the woods 



1745 1748. 213 

by John Levering and Shebosh (John Joseph Bull). It was soon 
obstructed by fences. In June, 1747, the court authorized the laying 
out of a road, but when, in September, an attempt was made by Jas- 
per Payne and John Brownfield of Bethlehem, Solomon Jennings 
and sundry men along the line, the effort to establish a convenient 
and direct course was so unreasonably obstructed by some on the 
joint committee that it was postponed. A new committee, appointed 
by the September court, went at the task in November. It was laid 
out as far as "Stahl's farm" on November 11, and the remainder of 
the way to Gnadenhuetten on the 15th. This road, which was 
approved by court in March, 1748, was twenty-five miles in length — 
four to five miles shorter than the original course. At the March 
term, in 1747, when the trouble about the taxes was adjusted, the 
court authorized Antes to lay out the road past Gnadenthal, between 
that place and the Irish Settlement. 

All of these things combined to induce another step in the direc- 
tion of better local order in civil matters. March 21 N. S., 1747, 
the first petition was laid before the Court of Quarter Sessions at 
Newtown for the creation of a separate township, to be known as 
Bethlehem Township. Payne and Brownfield, having, on April 4, 
finished running the line "towards the Irish Settlement," reported 
to the June court and on June 25, returned with the confirmation 
of the new township, together with the order for laying out the 
Gnadenhuetten road. With an evident sense of relief and gratifica- 
tion, the remark is recorded that the two settlers, not connected 
with the Brethren, whose farms lay within the township line, were 
of the peaceable and friendly sort of neighbors. At the September 
term of court the first township officers were appointed : Anton 
Albrecht, constable; Jasper Payne, a commissioner; William Prey, 
overseer of the poor, with Henry Antes as local Justice of the 
Peace." 

'4 The original Bethlehem Township included the entire area of the present Upper and 
Lower Nazareth Townships. The first boundaries were maintained, as it seems, with slight 
deviation, in the township as constituted under the organization of the new County of North- 
ampton in 1752. A petition of December, 1787, was confirmed at the June term of the 
Court of Quarter Sessions of Northampton County in 1788, for the setting off of the 
northern part into a new township to be called Nazareth Township. The division of the 
latter into Upper and Lower Nazareth Townships did not take place until 1807. In 1788, 
in connection with the establishment of the other adjoining township lines, an effort was 
made to have the lines so run that the Moravian land on both sides of the Lehigh and 
Monocacy would remain in Bethlehem Township, but it failed. The lines, as established in 



214 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Meanwhile, movements of larger import, bearing upon the status 
of the Moravian Church and the security of its growing interests in 
Pennsylvania and all the American colonies, were in progress in Eng- 
land. These were receiving the support of prominent men who were 
not only friendly disposed, but materially interested in the matter, 
and of broad-minded statesmen who were planning for the best 
development of the country and for the common weal, above mere 
racial prejudice and petty religious bigotry. Among these were 
General James Oglethorpe, the Honorable Thomas Penn, Proprietor 
of Pennsylvania, and Lord Halifax, President of the Board of Trade. 
On February 3, 1743, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, after protracted 
skirmishing between them and Governor Thomas on various 
involved and related points, had passed and laid before the Governor 
and Council, "an act for naturalizinig such foreign Protestants as 
are settled or shall settle in this Province who not being of the peo- 
ple called Quakers" — their case had been settled by previous legis- 
lation — "do conscientiously scruple the taking of any oath." It , 
immediately received the approval of the Governor, to be sent to 
England for confirmation. In compromising with the Assembly, the 
Governor waived his contention, which had also been that of the 
Proprietors, that the religious bodies had in view should be specified 
in the act. To this the majority of the Assembly had been averse. 
Shrewd politicians among them, while ostensibly contending on the 
lines of broad statesmanship against what seemed class legislation, 
saw that, by such specification, they would endanger their popularity, 
awaken antagonism in other matters and lose votes among people 
who were inimical to those who would thus be specified, principally 
the Moravians ; and among foreigners who might seem to be dis- 
criminated against by not being named. The Governor having 
3'ielded on some points, the Assembly consented to pass a quaran- 
tine hospital bill which he had desired since 1738, both as a humane 
provision for sick and indigent immigrants and as a measure of self- 
defense ; the Assembly having observed dilator)'- tactics and, under 
the pressure of anti-foreigner sentiment from certain quarters — for- 



June of that year, for Allen, Salisbury and Saucon Townships, left some of the land in each 
of these three. With the report of the line run October 6, 1788, between Bethlehem and Naza- 
reth Townships, rendered to Court, December 16. by George Golkowsky, the Moravian sur- 
veyor, Jonas Hartzel, Joseph Horsfield and Henry Lawall, a memorandum states that the area 
of Bethlehem Township was then 12,872 acres, that of Nazareth Township 12,900 arcres ; 
Allen and Forks Townships embracing respectively 29,000 and 12,882 acres. 



1745 1748. 215 

eigners meaning all who did not speak English — had preferred to 
urge more stringent restrictions on immigration. 

Parliament had withheld assent to a proposed similar naturaliza- 
tion act of the Assembly, in 1739, under the contention that the for- 
eigners meant should be specified; and, in 1740, had passed a gen- 
eral act for all the American colonies providing that "on and after 
June I, 1740, all persons born out of the Ligeance of his Majesty, 
his Heirs or Successors, who have inhabited and resided, or shall 
inhabit or reside for the space of seven years or more, in any of his 
Majesty's colonies in America, and shall not have been absent out 
of some of the said colonies for a longer space than two months dur- 
ing the said seven years, shall take and subscribe the oaths, etc., or, 
being of the people called Qviakers, shall make and subscribe the 
declaration of fidelity, and take and affirm the efifect of the Abjura- 
tion Oath, etc., shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be his 
Majesty's natural-born subjects," etc. The inception of measures 
favorable distinctly to the Moravians, as being also people "who do 
conscientiously scruple the taking of any oath," whom the Assembly 
of Pennsylvania had, in 1743, refused to specify, was the introduc- 
tion of the subject in the Royal Privy Council. In considering the 
Pennsylvania act of 1743, the statement of Proprietor Thomas Penn 
was produced, explaining that "none else are meant in these words 
but the Moravian Brethren who also enjoyed the benefits of this act, 
showing themselves truly worthy of these privileges. They ought 
therefore to be specified by name (as well as the Quakers) in this 
act, as a peaceful and sober people." Neither the Privy Council nor 
the Board of Trade being at liberty to amend the wording of such 
an act passed in Pennsylvania for itself, Oglethorpe and Penn, whose 
opinions had much weight, took the initiative to have the matter 
brought into Parliament in 1747. The foolish and outrageous action 
into which the Assembly of New York had been stampeded by preju- 
dice and ignorance, in the excitement of 1744, and a similar agita- 
tion by other elements in Virginia, which resulted in a proclamation 
of like tenor by the Governor of that colony at this very time, did 
much to induce better-informed and larger-minded men in England 
and in the Provinces to move in the direction of justice towards the 
Moravians, and of encouraging them, as desirable colonists, through 
a general act of Parliament. April 6, 1747, General Oglethorpe, on 
the strength of the Pennsylvania act of 1743 and the explanation of 
its primary intent by Proprietor Penn, moved in the House of Com- 



2l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

mens "that a clause be inserted in the act of 1740 in favor of the 
Moravian or United Brethren, exempting them from the taking of 
an oath." It was passed, vi^as concurred in by the House of Lords 
and, on June 28, received the royal sanction, to take effect, Decem- 
ber 25, 1747. The material part containing the new matter of this 
act is as follows : "And whereas many of the people of the congre- 
gation called the Moravian Brethren, and other foreign Protestants, 
not Quakers, who conscientiously scruple the taking of an oath, are 
settled in his Majesty's colonies in America, and demean themselves 
there as a sober, quiet and industrious people, and many others of 
the like persuasion are desirous to transport themselves thither ; and 
if the benefit of the said act made in the thirteenth year of his pres- 
ent Majesty's reign (1740) were extended to them, they who are now 
there would thereby be encouraged to continue their residence in 
his Majesty's colonies, and others would resort thither in greater 
numbers, whereby the said colonies would be improved, their 
strength increased, and their trade extended ; be it therefore enacted, 
etc., that from and after the 25th day of December, 1747, all Foreign 
Protestants who conscientiously scruple the taking of an oath," etc. 
Upon this follows the same provision and condition of naturalization, 
after seven years' residence, that were contained in the act of 1740. 
It will be observed that in these acts nothing is said on the subject 
of bearing arms, on which the Brethren took the same position as 
in the matter of an oath. Circumstances were now bringing a test 
upon them in this respect also in Pennsylvania. The movements 
agitated under the critical outlook of the time, when both foreign 
invasion and Indian alliance on the part of England's enemies were 
feared, led those who were suspicious of the Moravians to embrace 
new opportunities of making them prove their loyalty. These move- 
ments, when they took definite shape in the autumn of 1747, in the 
formation of the association at Philadelphia for the general defense 
of the city and the Province, also aroused the people throughout 
Bucks County; and the test of willingness to join the "Associators" 
began to be pressed upon the men of Bethlehem by zealous and 
officious persons. Occasional bands of Pennsylvania deserters from 
the English camps up the Hudson, where, after the abandonment of 
the proposed movement into Canada and the failure to establish 
an alliance with the Six Nations against French interests, troops 
were kept many months unpaid, ill-clothed and disaffected, with the 
thought of impressing the Indians with a show of power, came down 
the country through Nazareth and Bethlehem on their way to Phila- 



1745 1748- 217 

delphia, at intervals from May to October, 1747; sometimes with 
a sheriff and posse in pursuit, but evidently not trying very hard to 
capture the runaways. 

This unwonted sensation in the neighborhood drew the attention 
of the hard-working, peaceable men of the Economy more particu- 
larly to the public unrest of the time and added to the excitement 
of the other people in the Forks. Then the attitude of the Brethren 
towards these men, as they passed through, foot-sore and hungry, 
asking for something to eat and, of course, receiving it, regardless 
of how their conduct in thus forsaking their posts was to be viewed, 
was also watched with the purpose of detecting symptoms of Mora- 
vian treacher_v against the government. Bishop Spangenberg took 
occasion, before the close of the year, to give the farmers, mechanics 
and laborers at Bethlehem and Nazareth the necessary explanations 
in reference to the public situation and to the meaning and object 
of organizing Associators. He drew attention to the basis on which 
the Brethren desired that exemption from taking oath, like the Quak- 
ers, which was provided for in the act of Parliament, the outcome 
of which was then yet being awaited at Bethlehem. From his state- 
ments it is clear that the reason, as then urged, was not a general 
principle adopted as a fundamental one of the Church — a part of its 
creed, as has been commonly but erroneously supposed ; but as a 
matter of deference to the sentiments of a considerable number of 
individual Brethren who had such scruples, and as a matter of expe- 
diency over against people like the Quakers and the Mennonites in 
Pennsylvania, to whom the Brethren desired to "keep the open door" 
for preachers of the atonement in the blood of Jesus, as they held 
it and set it forth, by thus taking common ground and making com- 
mon cause with them in such a point on which they laid so much 
stress. The other scruple, that about bearing arms, in which gov- 
ernment concession and protection was hoped for, was rather more 
a matter of general principle than that about taking oath ; although, 
even in this, and at that time, by no means all who joined the Breth- 
ren had this in view as an article laid down and adhered to always 
and everywhere, or advanced it as one of the reasons for joining 
them. Not all made it a matter of personal conviction. Many 
would have seen their way clear to do militia duty when called upon 
by the State, without inconsistency. But when it was deemed best 
to make the objection to bearing arms a fundamental article, and 
exemption from such service a condition of settlement in different 
realms, because of the general missionary character all settlements 



2l8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and institutions were supposed to have, then the obUgation to all 
stand together in the matter, regardless of different individual views 
on the subject, was naturally laid upon all. 

Thus the Moravians, as a body of people professing that the main 
object of their organized activities was to propagate the gospel of 
peace, became allied, before the public, with what have sometimes 
been styled the group of "peace sects" in Pennsylvania. To secure 
exemption from bearing arms, as well as from taking oath, not only 
in the North American colonies, but in all British dominions, was 
felt to be highly desirable. Besides this, in view of much popular 
misapprehension in reference to the Brethren's Church, historically 
and doctrinally — for the extravagant aberrations of the period of a 
few years through which a portion of it had been passing did not 
represent its real doctrines and principles — it was wished to have a 
thorough investigation take place, in the hope that an of^cial recog- 
nition of the Church might be formally and explicitly granted by the 
English authorities, such as had not been included in the act of 1747. 
To this end Henry Cossart, agent in England, and others were dili- 
gently gathering material in the form of documentary evidence bear- 
ing upon every question that might be raised in the course of such 
an investigation. In order to give the history of this important 
matter in this connection, it is necessary to here overrun somewhat 
the period of time covered by this chapter. On September 16, 1748, 
Zinzendorf was constituted a kind of plenipotentiary by the Synod of 
the Church, under the title of Advocatus Fratrum, to personally nego- 
tiate in its name with authorities, particularly in Holland and Eng- 
land. In the latter country, after he took up his residence there with 
his cabinet of counselors, in January, 1749, he passed in that capa- 
city as "the Lord Advocate of the Brethren" in official circles. As 
such, he gave a power of attorney, on December 13, 1748, to six 
leading men, including Cossart, to proceed with the business in hand 
in his name. Meanwhile the palpable occasion for presenting the 
petition to Parliament in behalf of the Church, which practical men 
knew would strengthen the appeal and furnish the kind of basis to 
which most attention would at first be paid, appeared in the arrival 
of Captain Garrison at London with the Irene from Holland, January 
II, 1749, having on board a large colony bound for Pennsylvania." 

15 This colony of 120 is sometimes called the "Third Sea Congregation," also the 
"John Nitschmann Colony," because at the head of it was Bishop John Nitschniann, who 
was going to Pennsylvania to take command under a new order of things. Bishop David 
Nitschmann also returned to America with this colony. The names will all appear in the 
next chapter. 



1745 ■748. 219 

It was presumed that the appeal for the distinct privileges sought 
in their behalf would bring on the desired investigation. Zinzendorf 
was reluctant to have it start on this matter-of-fact basis on which 
the material interests represented in Parliament by the Board of 
Trade for the colonies would weigh in the question, but he yielded 
and let it take this course. 

On February 20, 1749, General Oglethorpe moved in the House 
of Commons that the House co-operate with the Brethren to encour- 
age their settling in the colonies. This was carried, with but one 
dissenting voice, and a Committee of Inquiry of upwards of forty 
members was appointed, of which Oglethorpe was chosen chairman. 
On March 14, he reported to the House that the committee to whom 
the petition of the "Deputies from the United Moravian Churches" 
— five empowered by Zinzendorf as Advocatus together with Cossart, 
had been referred, had examined the same and directed that it be 
reported. It was subsequently read in the House and it was 
"ordered that leave be given to bring in a Bill for encouraging the 
people known by the name of Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren 
to settle in his Majesty's colonies in America." Prior to the first 
reading, they were called "the Moravian Brethren" in the title of the 
proposed act and in naming them in the body of it, but in accordance 
with Zinzendorf's emphatic desire, this title was then changed to 
Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren. After the third reading, on 
April 15, a new committee of seventy members was, on motion, 
appointed to review the report of the first committee. The report 
was sustained, passed the Commons, April 18, and was then 
engrossed as "an Act of Parliament." In the House of Lords, con- 
trary to the expectation of some, it was found that the bench of 
Bishops had decided to not delay its passage, from the standpoint 
of ecclesiastical recognition, and the adverse position taken by the 
Bishop of London, from the narrower point of view of his jurisdic- 
tion in the American colonies, was also overcome. Then the min- 
isterial party in the interests of the Crown, as distinct from those 
represented by the Board of Trade, resorted to obstructive tactics, 
by moving, on April 23, that the Lords, as a committee of the 
whole, take up the matter de novo, thus subjecting it to the ordeal of 
a third investigating committee. One manoeuvre was the effort to 
have the benefit of the act limited to German colonists. The Lord 
Chancellor led in this attempt to obstruct or curtail ; and some of 
the speeches reported reveal how strongly the prejudices against 



220 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Zinzendorf and the Brethren, awakened in some quarters mainly 
through the German clergy of England's German King, operated 
against the passage of the act for a while. After an adjournment of 
the committee of the whole by the Lord Chancellor for six days, a 
strong speech for the act was made by Lord Halifax, warmly sup- 
ported by Lords Granville and Sandys, the Duke of Argyle and 
others, while the Bishop of Worcester "declared the approbation of 
the whole episcopal bench." Many previous opponents were won 
over and others concluded to, at least, offer no further active oppo- 
sition. Then, on that day. May 12, 1749, in the midst of much sus- 
pense, the act passed, nemine contradicente , and, on June 6, it received 
the royal sanction. 

Among the numerous documents considered by the several com- 
mittees, two that have particular connection with Pennsylvania may 
be here mentioned. One, among those produced, "to prove that the 
Moravian Brethren have settled in his Majesty's dominions in 
America and met with approbation," was a file of three lists of those 
"already settled in Pennsylvania" (including their accessions from 
that Province and the children committed to their care). One 
reported 395 persons at Bethlehem in February, 1748. Another 
reported 145 persons at Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Gnadenhuetten 
at that time. The third gave 122 as the number of children in the 
institutions at Fredericktown, Germantown and Oley in August, 
1748; there being no list of the adults at those three places. Together 
with these lists, was also presented a certificate from the Inspector 
of Customs at London "that the ship Irene, from Holland, lately 
cleared for Philadelphia with about 150 German passengers." She 
cleared, February 20, and put out to sea, March i, 1749. The con- 
cluding statement was added that "the number of the Brethren 
already settled, and going to settle in Pennsylvania, contained in 
the said lists and certificates, amounts in the whole to 812 persons." 

The other document alluded to was a letter to the chairman of the 
Committee of Inquiry from Thomas Penn, Esq., Proprietor of Penn- 
sylvania, under date of February 21, 1749,^" O. S. 1748. It is as 
follows : "The Deputies of the Moravian Brethren having desired 
me to certify to you the Behaviour of those settled in Pennsylvania, 



16 It may be observed here that the above dates, in connection with these proceedings in 
England are the old style English dates, historically associated with the documents and 
records. This deviation from the principle followed in these pages, in the matter of dates, 
as stated in a previous chapter, seems to be necessary in this case. 



1745 1748. 221 

I am to inform you, that about eight years ago one of the Brethren 
purchased a Tract of Land containing Five thousand Acres, and set- 
tled on it, and another Tract, several Hundred People, who have 
built Two Towns, made good Improvements, and live quietly among 
their Neighbours. Above One hundred of these People sailed about 
Ten Days since for Pennsylvania ; they appeared healthy, able-bodied 
people, and very fit to settle a new Country. As I apprehend they 
will make good useful Subjects, I cannot but wish them all reason- 
able Encouragement, especially when I consider their Endeavours 
to civilize the Indians, and to make them acquainted with Principles 

of Religion, may much strengthen the English Interest among 

those People." 

That act of Parliament, taken in all its parts, gave the Moravian 
Church and its settlements in the American colonies a formally 
recognized footing such as was enjoyed by no other religious body 
in these provinces. Besides the recognition of its historic character, 
its doctrine was declared "to differ in no essential article of faith 
from that of the Church of England, as set forth in the Thirty-nine 
Articles." It was thus guaranteed the exercise of its own constitu- 
tion in its congregations. There was a provision that the Advocatus 
or the Secretariiis of the Church was recognized as the competent 
person to conduct correspondence or negotiations with the govern- 
ment in its affairs, whenever occasion occurred, and the names and 
residences of its bishops were to be certified by him from time to 
time. It was stipulated that persons claiming the benefit of the act 
must be furnished with a certificate of membership by a bishop or 
minister. The act reads in part as follows: "Whereas many of the 
people of the church or congregation called the Unitas Fratrum or 
United Brethren are settled in his Majesty's colonies in America, and 
demean themselves there as a sober, quiet and industrious people 

and several of the said Brethren do conscientiously scruple the 

taking of an oath, and likewise do conscientiously scruple bearing 
arms, or serving in any military capacity, although they are willing 
and ready to contribute whatever sums of money shall be thought a 
reasonable compensation for such service, and which shall be 
necessary for the defence and support of his Majesty's Person and 
Government : — and zvhcreas the said congregations are an Ancient 
Protestant Episcopal Church which has been countenanced and relieved 
by the Kings of England, your Majesty's predecessors: 

"And whereas the encouraging of the said People to settle in 
America will be beneficial to the said colonies ; therefore may it please 



222 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

your Majesty, at the humble petition of (the names of the petitioners) 
Deputies from the said Moravian Churches, in Behalf of themselves 
and their United Brethren, that it may be enacted by the King's most 
Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament 
assembled and by the authority of the same, that from and after the 
24th day of June, 1749, every person being a member of the said 
Protestant Episcopal Church, known by the name of Unitas Fratrum 

or United Brethren who shall be required upon any lawful 

occasion to take an oath," etc. Then follow the provisions petitioned 
for, exempting from oath and military duty and accepting affirmation 
and assessment of money in lieu of these two obligations 
respectively, with the various conditions already referred to and 
certain penalties.^' 

Thus the standing of the Moravian Church was established in 
the colonies. The obligation to treat it respectfully, notwithstanding 
the extravagances with which it had become partially infected at 
that time, was laid upon the Anglican clergy by their own highest 
authorities. The fusilade of detraction and calumny in print which 
those abnormal tendencies had occasioned was to a considerable 
extent offset through that recognition of the Church by men of such 
eminence. Its settlement in Pennsylvania and the activities emanating 
therefrom were secured against permanent damage from any further 
such oppressive official measures on the part of civil authorities under 
the incitement of contentious political factions, knavish traders and 
intolerant religionists, as had been promulgated in New York and 
were audaciously renewed in 1755, in defiance of this act, but not 
enforced. Although the slander about alleged complicity in French 
and Jesuitical intrigues did not cease therefore, yet, a position had 
been attained from which its further propagation could be withstood, 
since it had been totally discredited by the British Government. 

While those well-managed efforts, of so much consequence to 
Bethlehem and all related enterprises in Pennsylvania, were in 

17 The practical value of this act, prior to the Revolutionary War, was much greater for 
Moravians in the American colonies, and consequently for the entire Church, than is com- 
monly represented by modern Moravian writers in Europe, especially in Germany, where 
no importance is attached by many to the difference between being a Church or a mere 
association, where the American situation in this respect is imperfectly understood and that 
act of Parliament is hardly given a place among events of general significance in the history 
of the Church. Its value in the American colonies came to an end, of course, with the 
Declaration of Independence. 



1745 1/48. 223 

progress in England, important internal changes occurred that 
rendered the close of the period embraced in this chapter a notable 
epoch. Their inception lay in plans evolved at several conferences 
during 1747, between Zinzendorf, who was then holding, temporarily, 
a peculiar autocratic position in the direction of affairs, and the men 
he had associated with himself as a kind of cabinet. The central 
point decided was that the General Eldership which was one of 
Bishop Spangenberg's functions at Bethlehem should be abolished 
there, as this peculiar individual, spiritual headship had been set aside 
in Europe in 1741 ; and that the idea of the invisible headship of 
Christ, specially appropriated and applied under the conception of 
such an ideal Eldership, should be promulgated also in America, 
with organization and management so reconstructed as to be brought 
into harmony with this thought. This would mean the termination 
of the plenipotentiary administration of Spangenberg, as explained 
at the close of the preceding chapter, and the substitution of a 
collegiate control by a Conference or Board of Elders, with the lofty 
and bold thought that the invisible, supreme One, "Head over all 
things to the Church," should be regarded as in their midst, ruling 
and directing "as their Chief Elder." In itself considered, this 
idea of the headship of Christ in the Church on earth was sound and 
scriptural, and the conception of this headship, as a supreme pastoral 
relation of the Chief Shepherd to His flock on earth, which He had 
purchased with His own blood, had its warrant in numerous utter- 
ances of Christ and His Apostles. The thought of a peculiarly vivid 
realization and elevating special experience of this spiritual relation 
to the exalted Saviour, on the part of a group of souls, one in high 
spiritual mood and intense desire of heart, can not be called an 
unwarrantable one. That such souls should be led, in a subjective 
sense, to specially appropriate the blessing of this relation found 
in such an experience, cannot, in itself considered, be called fanaticism. 
That the exalted spiritual mood carried down from such an 
experience should communicate itself to wider circles, and that the 
central conception that had been laid hold of, in the midst of it, 
should appeal to them, as a new treasure of spiritual reality found, 
was not unnatural. In cherishing and propagating these ideas, 
however, men were walking on dizzy heights, where not all were 
able to maintain steadiness and soberness. Zinzendorf, sailing in 
the clouds with all his thoughts and plans at this period, to a much 
greater extent than before his return from America or after the 
crisis in the Wetterau ; seeming to almost have an aversion to everv- 



224 A. HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

thing that savored of practical thought and simple common sense, 
or that lay within any conventional lines ; seeming to be driven, by 
the incessant goading of his assailants, into a mania for the extra- 
ordinary, and to look askance at every sober-minded, well-balanced 
man in the Church, who tried to hold the process of things down on 
safe, solid ground, carried the promulgation of this doctrine to 
extremes that cannot be justified, both in the phraseology employed 
and in the application of it to governmental machinery, in detail. In 
the matter of expression and applied use, therefore, the cult that 
developed under his propensity to pursue every thought to the utter- 
most, was fairly open to the reproach of fanaticism. Driven to its 
greatest extreme at the very time when the Wetteravian fever was 
producing the delirium described in the preceding pages of this 
chapter, it served to aggravate the distemper. The infatuated conceit 
fostered, that the body of the Brethren were "the Saviour's people," 
in a sense different from that in which other bodies of Christians 
could make this claim, possessed the minds of all who were carried 
along with this tide, and became the chief ofifense to those who 
criticised. 

It produced, with the self-complacenc}' already referred to, a 
kind of lofty, patronizing air towards others, most cultivated among 
the lesser spirits in the Church, which lingered long after the intense 
ardor of those years had subsided. That the resort to the use of the 
lot, after the manner of Zinzendorf, by the conferences of Elders, 
under the central idea of the Lord Jesus Christ spiritually enthroned 
in their midst, and believed to over-rule and direct the result in all 
manner of questions, should increase in frequency, and in the range 
of things thus dealt with, was consistent with the ideas started out 
from, and was logically inevitable. In subsequent years, after the 
enthusiastic fervor which produced the language of the first flush, 
in connection with it, had passed away, and its employment was 
reduced to system and grew perfunctory, that language, adhered to, 
became a kind of mere official cant; just, as in many other respects, 
among other bodies of Christians, even now, many expressions and 
ways which originated in peculiar religious enthusiasm and are 
retained after the fire has burned down, have become empty cant. 

The reconstruction to be effected in Pennsylvania, to harmonize 
with this ideal conception of church government, involved the 
establishment of the Church and all its operations in the American 
colonies, as superintended at Bethlehem, on a distinct ecclesiastical 
basis, different from that on which it stood before, in connection with 



1745 1748. 225 

the Church of God in the Spirit under the Pennsylvania Synod. This 
latter, as nominally a union, or joint Synod of different ecclesiastical 
elements, was to cease. This alliance of elements, so far as they 
were yet represented in the Synod and were served by ministers 
provided from Bethlehem, was henceforth to be regarded as com- 
prising "tropes" of membership within the Brethren's Church ; this 
conception of tropes, as already sufficiently elucidated in these pages, 
having been more articulately enunciated and formally adopted, as a 
principle, in Europe, at the Tenth General Synod of the Church, 
held in January, 1745. All of the congregations in America that were 
served by the Brethren and that desired to remain in this connection, 
were to be now organized as congregations of the Brethren — in other 
words as congregations of the Moravian Church, or at least as 
missions and itinerant charges of the Church. With this change of 
base in view, which the altered conditions in Pennsylvania, especially 
the progress of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches towards 
general organization with proper, distinct supervision, rendered 
manifestly expedient, Zinzendorf, on September 13, 1746, wrote a 
letter resigning his nominal inspectorship of the Lutheran department 
under the Pennsylvania Synod. At a conference of the ministers 
who belonged to this department, held at Bethlehem on January 27, 
1747, when they were not yet aware of what was in contemplation, 
it was decided to ask him to reconsider this step and retain the 
nominal inspectorship, with one of the men located in Pennsylvania 
serving in the capacity of Vice-Inspector, as before this. It was, 
however, consummated, and this personal connection of Zinzendorf 
with the Pennsylvania S3"nod thus ceased. These changes, being 
planned in Europe, contemplated also a general internal re-organi- 
zation, but it was deemed inexpedient, as j-et, to abolish the General 
Economy, or Co-operative Union of Bethlehem and Nazareth, as a 
practical arrangement for the situation of the time. This was to 
continue until other reasons should render its dissolution desirable. 
The question of Spangenberg's further relation to the Economy and 
to the general work in America, on this altered basis, was, next to 
the central principle of change in the government, in the abolition 
of his General Eldership and the promulgation of the Divine Eldership 
idea, the most important one. In those distant counsels, theorizing 
and idealizing, with no proper understanding of the vital, practical 
issues involved in retaining or dispensing with Spangenberg's lead- 
ership in Pennsylvania at this time, the view prevailed that another 
16 



226 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

man, in closer touch with the latest development of the ideas now 
to be promulgated at Bethlehem, had better take Spangenberg's 
place ; that the latter had better retire from the leadership, if the 
idea of the Divine Eldership with the different kind of general man- 
agement which this would substitute for his superintendency should 
be introduced. This main question, on which that of Spangenberg's 
retirement and all others that were involved necessarily turned, was 
finally submitted to the lot, with an affirmative result> at a special 
conference of Zinzendorf and his cabinet on December i8, 1747. 
Earlier in the year, it had been determined that his son-in-law, John 
de Watteville — consecrated a bishop, June 4, 1747 — should undertake 
a tour of general inspection among the Indian missions as well as 
in the West Indies. He was therefore commissioned to inaugurate 
these changes at Bethlehem and in the whole American work. He 
landed at New York in the third week of September, 1748, with his 
wife, the Countess Benigna, who had been in Pennsylvania with her 
father in 1742. On the 19th of that month, about eleven o'clock at 
night, they unexpectedly arrived at Bethlehem with John Wade who 
was doing evangelistic work in and about New York, and was 
awaiting their arrival there, prepared to convey them to Bethlehem. 
They had been long expected, and it is stated that the people at 
Bethlehem were overjoyed at their sudden appearance.^* 

On October 13, a Synod convened at Bethlehem. The sessions 
were held in the unfinished large house of the single men, the 
Brethren's House, and continued until October 27. It was the 
thirteenth Synod held since the return of Spangenberg to Pennsyl- 
vania in 1744, and the twenty-sixth such convocation since the' first 
held in Germantown in January, 1742. It was the first, however, 
convoked distinctively as a regular Synod of the Moravian Church. 
In the manuscript journal it is not called as before, the Pennsylvania 
Synod, but a "Synod of the Brethren." The numbering of regular 
Moravian Synods in America begins with this one. Bishop de Watte- 
ville presided. The various changes and new regulations to be 
introduced were explained. The more definite system established by 
the Tenth General Synod of the Church, in 1745, relative to the three 

'8 With them came five young women. One was Anna Rosina Anders, who for some 
years served as Eldress or spiritual overseer of the single women at Bethlehem, and was 
commonly referred to as Sister Anna Rosel. There is an oil portrait of her in the archives at 
Bethlehem. Another was Elizabeth Lisberger who, on June 2, 1749, was married at Beth- 
lehem to Thomas Stach, with whom she went to Greenland as a missionary. The others 
were a Miss Hasselmann, Catherine Barbara Keller and Elizabeth Palmer. 



1745 1748- 227 

grades of the ministry. Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons, in the 
matter of their respective positions and functions was elucidated ; as 
also the regulations in force in connection with various other ecclesi- 
astical offices, especially those of Senior and Consenior Civilis and 
Senior Politicus, as these existed then and were maintained for many 
years, to have charge of those functions, over against civil authorities 
and in aiifairs of state and court, which it was deemed desirable to 
eliminate from the duties of the bishops. Henry Antes was ordained, 
at this Synod, a Senior Civilis'^^ for the Moravian Church in America. 

A number of ordinations, both of presbyters and of deacons, also 
took place on this occasion, while seven who were, in point of fact, 
presbyters, while passing under the indefinite general term of 
Ordinati, as classifications had been followed in the alliance with 
Lutheran and Reformed elements in Pennsylvania, were now formally 
declared to be presbyters, as Ordinati strictly speaking, and were 
enrolled in that grade, distinct from the deacons. The principle 
was laid down that men who had received ordination in the Luth- 
eran and Reformed Churches should, in virtue of this, be acknowl- 
edged and enrolled as deacons ; the idea being that this degree of 
recognition was accorded to ordination in non-espiscopal churches, 
and that in their subsequent ordination as presbyters, all such would, 
nevertheless, ultimately receive episcopal ordination.-" 

Another subject of deliberation at that Synod was the important 
one of schools and the work among the children in general. The 
more fully developed system in operation in Europe, with a paternal 



'9 This office became obsolete with the death, in 1834, of the Rev. Lewis David de 
Schweinitz of Bethlehem, who was the last Moravian clergyman, either in Europe or 
America, who held it. 

=t) A singular departure from this principal in the direction of strictness — but in accordance 
with the wish of the candidate, as it seems — occurred in 1752, in the case of the Rev. 
Laurentius Thorstansen Nyberg, who had been ordained to the Lutheran ministry in 
Sweden, where the episcopacy is retained by that Church, by Archbishop Benzelius, but 
joined the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania in 1748. He went to England in 1752 to 
labor there and was ordained a deacon by a Moravian bishop in London. It is the only 
instance of the kind on record. He was ordained a presbyter in 1754. This strange and 
indefensible procedure created much sensation in Sweden. Eventually the Moravian 
Church, with unnessary generosity, departed from that fair and sensible principle in the 
other direction by admitting men ordained in non-episcopal churches at once as presbyters, 
on the score of their having served as regular pastors, in the word and sacraments, in those 
churches. The decision of 1748 is consistent with the general position of the' Moravian 
Church and makes all reasonable concession to ecclesiastical systems which recognize and 
have only one grade of the ministry. 



228 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and maternal oversight of this department of activity committed to 
appointees called Kindereltern, was explained by Bishop de Watteville, 
preparatory to a re-organization of this work, which will be treated 
of in the next chapter. 

The principle of tropes, already referred to several times, was also 
more fully elucidated, with a view to carrying out Zinzendorfs 
favorite idea of elasticity within the Church, fostering the several 
historic cults, as a concession to the differing ecclesiastical traditions 
of people received into its pale on the new basis now established. 
In connection with this, the idea of gathering in only genuinely 
awakened Christians whose religion was a matter of the heart, was 
pressed to a degree, in setting it forth, that betrayed symptoms of 
an unwarranted assumption of superiority which, at that time, 
found utterance in treating of the headship of Christ in the Church. 
Carried away by the enthusiastic aspiration to present an example 
of a body of people in real living union with Christ, and by the exalted 
experiences made ; giving way somewhat also to the disposition — of 
which there have been many other examples — to believe themselves, 
in a peculiar sense, the Lord's people, because they were so much 
assailed and reviled from many quarters, men indulged in a kind of 
speech which gave the impression that the}' considered themselves 
the Church. 

On November 5, 1748, Bishop Spangenberg, acquiescing in the 
plans that had been communicated to him and desiring to clear 
the way for the proposed reconstruction in all particulars, placed 
his resignation in the hands of the Conference of Elders, as then 
constituted. His position was peculiar and embarrassing. If this 
step asked of him had been the result simply of the drawing of the 
lot, on the whole question, in December, 1747, it would have had a 
dififerent aspect. But the shaping of the matter in the preceding 
plans so that this became necessarily involved in the final issue, was 
a matter of deliberate arrangement, and revealed a desire to have 
him disconnected from the new departure, notwithstanding that no 
man in the Moravian Church was as competent as he would have 
been to inaugurate the new regime. That his coadjutor, or assistant, 
Cammerhofif was not likewise asked to retire from his position, to 
open the way for the change of system, was significant of what 
appears from other indications. Spangenberg had, with fearless 
honesty, raised his voice and used his pen against the trend of things 
prior to this. The men who in their soaring enthusiasm had cast 
prudence and common sense to the winds for the time being, found 



1/45- 



-1748. 



229 



him in their way; for tlieir t3'pe of religious intensity and exalted 
spirituality, as little as other types of it, rendered men proof against 
being piqued by objections to their notions; and they put a severe 
trial upon Spangenberg's faith in the ingenious sincerity of their 
purposes, by thus constraining him to vacate a position in vi^hich he 
had labored so arduously and accomplished what none of them would 
have been able to do. On November 13 — the day on which, seven 
years before, the conception of the immediate headship of Christ 
in the Church which displaced the ideal human General Eldership 
was formally promulgated — the solemn declaration of the extension 
of this central principle of organization, administration and fellowship 
to the Church in America, was made at Bethlehem, in connection 
with high festivities, in which Spangenberg was a quiet, unofificial 
participant. In its substantial quality, the act of that day consum- 
mated the establishment of a distinct American branch of the Mora- 
vian Church. After several busy days, the ceremonious dedication of 
the new Brethren's House, already referred to, took place on the 
i6th, de Watteville officiating. While he was absent, December 
4-31, visiting the Indian converts remaining in New York and Con- 
necticut, Spangenberg went to Philadelphia to pay his respects to 
the new Governor, James Hamilton, while his vi^ife, relieved of official 
duties, opened a writing school for young working women at Beth- 
lehem. 




RELICS OF THE CROWN INN. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The Course of Things to the Indian Raid. 
1749—1755- 

The period of three years after Bishop Spangenberg's temporary- 
retirement brought developments that more severely tested the 
institutions at Bethlehem than any experiences previously made. 
Abnormal tendencies, referred to in the preceding chapter, found 
entrance, for a brief season, to a sufficient extent, that the time of 
their invasion may be regarded as an internal crisis — passed how- 
ever without disaster, and before the time of outward tribulation 
which followed. The nature of this crisis will appear more clearly 
when the administration of the man sent over to be Spangenberg's 
successor opens. Until the autumn of 1749, Bishop John de Watte- 
ville remained in control. In February of that year Spangenberg and 
his wife left Bethlehem and located temporarily in Philadelphia, 
where they devoted themselves to such evangelistic and pastoral 
duties as they found to do in that city. The understanding was 
that they would accompany de Watteville to Europe before the close 
of the year. The latter was very busily engaged during the inter- 
vening months. The broad scope of his commission required him to 
not only effect the changes in view at Bethlehem, but also to visit 
all the other Moravian fields of labor in America, to organize the 
work at all of these places, and to thoroughly inspect the condition and 
prospects of the missionary work among the Indians, which involved 
extensive and arduous journeys in the Indian country. He also 
visited the stations in the West Indies, sailing from New York, April 
8, and returning to Bethlehem, July 4. On some of these tours he 
was accompanied by Spangenberg. His wife, the Countess Benigna, 
remained in Bethlehem during most of this time. 

Conspicuous among the changes made in the process of re-organ- 
ization, are those which went into efifect early in 1749, in connection 
with the work among the children. On January 6, the sixteen girls 
of the boarding-school which was yet conducted at Nazareth, where, 
in 1746, Whitefield had found satisfaction in associating it with his 



1749 I75S- 231 

original plans, were transferred to Bethlehem and "welcomed, with 
agreeable music," to their new quarters in "the house before that 
occupied by married people as dwelling apartments," and later called 
the "children's house." This was the stone building now spoken of 
ofificially as "the Old Seminary," and commonly called "the bell 
house," already referred to. There, on the above date, the unbroken 
local existence of the school now known for many ye'ars as the 
Seminary for Young Ladies began. Those girls were in charge 
of four teachers who accompanied them from Nazareth. The next 
day the children of the nursery, twenty-nine little boys and twenty-six 
little girls, were taken to Nazareth with their nurses and attendants, 
and domiciled in the Whitefield house. This nursery, referred to 
already in the preceding chapter, was an institution of pathetic 
interest. Under the peculiar arrangements of the time, with no 
proper provision yet for separate family homes, while women, as 
well as men, were employed, in departments and companies, at the 
various kinds of labor or were traveHng as missionaries, it was 
necessary, so long as this system was continued, to make special 
provision for the care of the quite young children in a special home. 
In this nursery they were placed as soon as they were old enough 
to be taken from the mother's arms and there certain of the widows 
and single women, or certain of the married women who were 
physically unable to engage in other duties, took care of them until, 
at three years of age, they were placed in the separate institutions 
for little boys and girls. The nursery was under the general superin- 
tendence of an intelligent and reliable married couple, with the 
assistance of such others in the external work of the establishment, 
as the number of children, from time to time, required; and either 
the Superintendent himself, or some one associated with him, or 
located near at hand, was possessed of sufficient medical knowledge 
to serve all ordinary needs. 

Furthermore, on January lo, Dr. Meyer brought a few boys to 
Bethlehem who had been temporarily placed in the school on the 
farm of Antes in Frederick Township. They, with four boys who 
had remained of the little school in the Ysselstein house on the south 
side of the Lehigh, treated of in the last chapter, and several others 
brought down from Gnadenthal and Nazareth, were quartered in a 
room of the Brethren's Hotise, the next day, and organized in proper 
charge ; they having reached an age at which it was thought desirable 
to have them under further instruction and training "nearer to the 
heart of the congregation," so that they should not grow out of 



232 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

touch with the central influences. This was the idea which also 
controlled the transfer of girls, at a certain age, to the boarding- 
school now established at Bethlehem. In the following month of 
May, the school opened in 1746, in the house of John Bechtel at 
Germantown, was closed — mainly because of financial burdens. On 
May 24, the girls of that boarding-school were brought to Bethlehem, 
and eleven of them were placed in the, now vacant, Ysselstein house 
on the south side. Thus, that building became a boarding-school 
for girls, but without the sHght stigma that attached to the boys' 
school which had occupied it before. This first school for girls on 
the south side was organized. May 27, 1749, but was only main- 
tained until February 25, 1750, when the older of the girls were 
installed with the older girls of Bethlehem who were engaged in 
learning various kinds of female industries, and the younger ones 
were taken over to the Maguntsche school. The subsequent school 
history of that house on the south side is the following: September 
10, 1751, eleven girls from the abandoned Oley school, which it will 
be necessary to mention again, were brought to Bethlehem and 
quartered in that house with some from the Maguntsche school, which 
from that time became a school exclusively for boys. A few others 
were added later, and there, a school for girls was again organized. 
It was continued until December 4, 1753, when the use of the house 
for school purposes ceased and a school for girls — fourteen girls 
in charge of two sisters — was again opened at Nazareth, in the older 
of the two log houses — long ago demolished — which stood near the 
Whitefield house. There this school remained until June 18, 1759. 

Therefore, for a while after these shiftings of January to May, 
1749, the children of the Economy, with others under Moravian care, 
were distributed in the following institutions : Girls, in the boarding- 
school at Bethlehem, with an adjunct on the south side ; boys, in 
the school in the Brethren's House at Bethlehem, with an adjunct 
later opened in the log house next to the Community House, where 
the church now stands ; boys, in the school at Fredericktown ; boys 
and girls, in the schools at Oley and Maguntsche ; the nursery 
children, boys and girls, in the Whitefield house at Nazareth.^ 

It is an interesting circumstance, in connection with the re-organ- 
ization of school work in 1749, and particularly with the permanent 

I These changes and translocations are thus traced with some minuteness as a matter of 
reference, for the benefit of those who sometimes search for details of the early school 
work, locally or generally, and find the inaccuracies and contradictions in extant historical 
papers confusing. Subsequent shiftings will in like manner be noted as they occur. 



1749 1755- 233 

establishment of the boarding-school for girls at Bethlehem, that 
Count Zinzendorf's daughter Benigna, who, in 1742, had made the 
beginning in this important branch of Moravian Church work in 
Pennsylvania, at Germantown, was now again here and manifesting 
her warm interest in it by helping to re-establish it on the new basis. 
She had more women of education and refinement associated with 
her, in these efforts, than at the start, seven years before ; and from 
this time on, the number of women, as well as of men, thoroughly 
qualified for such work, steadily increased with the demands. 

On April 25, 1749, letters arrived from Europe in reference to the 
sailing of the Irene from London with the large colony mentioned in 
the preceding chapter, in connection with the parliamentary pro- 
ceedings in regard to the Moravian Church. These letters led to 
active preparations for their reception. They left London, February 
20, put out to sea, March i, and anchored at New York, May 12; 
the very day on which the act of Parliament, to which their presence 
at London had helped to give impulse, was passed. Their arrival 
attracted considerable attention at New York and was commented 
on in the newspapers. Bishop David Nitschmann, accompanied by 
his wife, returned to Pennsylvania with this colony to resume his 
travels and negotiations, as a missionary superintendent. They 
were the first to reach Bethlehem, having started from New York 
in advance of the others. They came by way of Nazareth and arrived 
at Bethlehem, May 15, late in the evening. The leader of the colony 
was Bishop John Nitschmann who had been chosen to succeed Bishop 
Spangenberg at Bethlehem. Christian David, the indefatigable 
evangelist who had brought about the settlement of the Moravians 
at Berthelsdorf and the founding of Herrnhut in 1722, was also with 
them — "good old Christian David" writes the Bethlehem diarist who 
records the surprise and pleasure his arrival caused. The pioneer 
Greenland missionar}^ Matthew Stach, with whom Christian David 
was associated in founding that second mission of the Moravian 
Church among the heathen, was also one of the company, with his 
wife, his nephew Thomas Stach, who was to go with him to Green- 
land, and three Greenlanders, John, Matthew and Judith, whom Stach 
had taken to Europe and who were now returning to their home. 
Joseph Mueller of the Long Swamp, mentioned before this several 
times, who had been in Europe since 1743, studying medicine among 
other things, and now returning to serve the Church in Pennsylvania, 
was another passenger, together with his wife, \'erona Frev, who, as 



234 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

a single woman, had also accompanied Zinzendorf s party to Europe 
in 1743. David Wahnert, that man of many voyages and so 
serviceable to numerous colonies on ship-board, and his faithful wife, 
Mary, were with them. One ordained man, besides the two Nitsch- 
manns, who came with this third Sea Congregation was Samuel 
Krause, with his wife Rosina. They returned to Europe in 1753. 
One negro woman, Magdalena Mingo came with the colony. - 

2 Besides the above there were four married couples : Michael and Anna Helena Haber- 
land, Christian Jacob and Anna Margaret Sangerhausen, John and Anna StoU, Christian 
Frederick and Anna Regina Steinmann ; also John Schneider, a widower and Magdalena 
Elizabeth Reuss, a widow. While recorded statements differ as to the entire number on board, 
there were evidently nearly 150, including 16 officers and sailors, of whom 9 were members 
of the Church, and some other persons not bound for Bethlehem, whose names do not 
appear. 106 of the 115 Moravian passengers named were permanent accessions to the 
settlements in the Forks and to the missionary force connected therewith. The main part 
of the colony consisted of 39 single men, besides Thomas Stach who was bound for Green- 
land, and 48 single women. Thirty-one couples of these young people were betrothed, and, 
on July 15, 1749, were married at Bethlehem. This occasion, like the similar one at Herrn- 
haag in 1743, was commemorated by these families for some years, and also spoken of as 
"the great wedding." Some of them rendered valuable missionary service later and a few 
of the men were eventually ordained. The majority, however, served the Economy in 
various industries. There were among them bakers, blacksmiths, a book-binder, 
carpenters and joiners, cloth-dressers, cutlers, farmers, a fringe and lace-maker, a furrier, 
masons, shoemakers, stocking-weavers, tailors and weavers. The names here follow in 
alphabetical order : 

SINGLE MEN. 
Berndt, Gottlieb, Opitz, Carl, 

Bernhardt, Wenzel, Pitschmann, George, 

Birnbaum, Joachim, Renner, John George, 

Drews, Peter, Richter, John Christian, 

Doerrbaum, John Philip, Rillmann, Andrew, 

Enersen, Enert, Schlegel, Frederick, 

Engel, John Godfrey, Schmidt, John, 

Fritche, Henry, Schmidt, John Christopher, 

Gattermeyer, John Leonhard, Schmidt, Melchior, (I) 

Gold, George, Schmidt, Melchior, (2) 

Hohmann, John Peter, Schneider, Martin, 

Kliest, Daniel, Schultze, Carl, 

Kuehnest, Christopher. Schultze, Godfrey, 

Krause, Andrew, Schweisshaupl, John, 

Kunz. David, Seiffert, Andrew, 

Mordick, Peter, Straehle, Rudolph, 

Mueller, John Bernhard, Tanneberger, David, 

Muenster, Michael, Weinland, John Nicholas. 

Nitschmann, Martin, 



1749- 



-I75S- 



2^35 



In connection with this large accession to the population and 
working force, some other names began to figure in the records of 
occurrences during the year 1749, with which interesting and 
important events were afterwards associated. The first week in June, 
John Jones of Skippack who had sold his farm in order to settle 
near Bethlehem, came, with his family, and took temporary possession 
of one of the houses on the south side of the river. In April, 1750, 
he bought the 500 acres "east of Bethlehem adjoining the land of 
Secretary Peters and including the old field of Dr. Graeme," and 
in the autumn of that year, he finished his house and took up his 
residence there. He eventually entered into regular connection with 
the Moravian Church. Thus began the history of "the Jones place" 
near Bethlehem which stands in such close and interesting relation 
with the subsequent history of the neighborhood. 

Several Jerseymen, also connected with later important movements, 
appear upon the scene. Josiah Pricket — written also Bricket, Bracket 
and Brickets — who kept a public house in the neighborhood known 
as Greenwich, a warm friend of the Moravians, who had visited 



Arndt, Rosina, 
Arnold, Rosina Barbara, 
Ballenhorst, Margaret, 
Beyer, Anna Rosina, 
Beyer, Maria, 
Bieg, Elizabeth, 
Binder, Catherine, 
Dietz, Rosina, 
Dominick, Maria, 
Dressier, Sophia Margaret, 
Drews, Margaret, 
Eis, Charlotte, 
Engfer, Maria Elizabeth, 
Fichte, Catherine, 
Fischer, Catherine, 
Galle, Rosina, 
Groesser, Margaret, 
Gruendberg, Helena, 
Haberland, Juliana, 
Hammer, Anna Maria, 
Hans, Rosina, 
Heindel, Margaret 
Hendel, Maria Barbara, 
Kerner, Anna Rosina, 



WOMEN. 

Koffler, Anna Maria, 
Krause, Anna Maria, 
Krause, Barbara, 
Maans, Martha, 
Meyerhoft, Magdalena, 
Mingo, Magdelena, 
Nitsche, Anna Maria, 
Nuernberg, Dorothea, 
Nuss, Helena, 
Oertel, Elizabeth, 
Opitz, Maria Elizabeth, 
Paulsen, Catherine, 
Ramsburger, Anna, 
Rebstock, Anna Catherine, 
Roth, Anna Maria, 
Seidel, Juliana, 
Schmatter, Anna Maria, 
Schuling, Rosina, 
Schwartz, Magdalena, 
Uhlmann, Dorothea, 
Vogt, Divert, 
Weicht, Susanna, 
Wenzel, Catherine. 



236 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Bethlehem several times, made formal application to be received into 
their communion, on June 7, 1749. His house had been one of the 
stopping-places of itinerants between Bethlehem and the Indian 
missions in New York, and finally one of their preaching-places. 
So also came, occasionally, Samuel Green, Jr., and his wife Abigail, 
whose house in "the Great Meadows," in the same neighborhood, 
was likewise such a stopping-place and center of stated religious 
meetings. They had previously attended Quaker meeting and 
services of "the long beards" in Amwell Township where Green's 
father, Samuel Green, Sr., was a large land-owner, a surveyor and, 
for some years, assessor and collector of taxes, clerk and finally 
Justice of the Peace. Samuel Green, Jr., and his wife were baptized 
at Bethlehem on Whit-Monday, May 26, 1749, he as John Samuel 
and she as Anna Abigail, and were enrolled as communicant members 
of the Moravian Church. This connection with these Jersey people 
was the inception of the work which resulted in the establishment of 
a regular Moravian settlement, in 1770, on the large tract of land 
on which Green had his home, and which he offered, in 1768, to 
present for the purpose, but which was regularly purchased in 1770. 
The place was, at first, called Greenland, but in 1775, was given the 
name Hope.'^ 

During the summer of 1749, visits by persons of prominence in 
business circles or in public office were of frequent occurrence. One 
such visit, noted in September, was that of Thomas Penn's Secretary 
with "Jtistice Anthony Morris of Furnace Mill, on the road to Phila- 
delphia." This visit had some connection, as it seems, with planning 
and prospecting then in progress, with a view to the founding of 
a new town at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers 
and the eventual erection of the new county which was being agitated. 

An epoch in the industrial development of Bethlehem came with 
the arrival, on June 25, 1749, of four young men from England; 
William Dixon, Joseph Healy, John Hirst and Richard Poppelwell, 
to make the first attempt at manufacturing woolen cloth. They 
were weavers from the Yorkshire mills which were, at that time, 

3 This church settlement, to which there will be further reference in these pages, had a 
very promising beginning, with its important mill, store and group of other industries, its 
community house, tavern and even a boarding-school, for a few years. It also has an inter- 
esting history during the Revolutionary War. A combination of causes led to its decline, 
and it was given up, as a church-settlement, in iSoS. Several of the old buildings and the 
cemetery remain as objects of interest in the modern village which yet bears the name Hope. 




74''^W 



1749 I75S- 237 

being operated with vigor by men in connection with the J\Ioravian 
Church in England.* 

Among the members of the Moravian Church won in America wlio 
became residents of Bethlehem, the most important man, after Antes 
and Captain Garrison, was Timothy Horsfield of Long Island. He 
removed to the place on November 8, 1749, and took possession of 
the new stone house that had been built for him during the summer, 
"outside of Bethlehem, beyond the grave-yard."^ 

Much attention was given during the year 1749 to plans for the 
extension of the work among the Indians. Under the new policy 
inaugurated by de Watteville, more effort was to be devoted to this, 
as a special undertaking of the Moravian Church, while the evan- 
gelistic activity among vi'hite settlers was to assume a more defined 
and localized character, with the abandonment of Zinzendorf's 
Pennsylvania Synod scheme. Bethlehem was no longer to be 
considered a center from which a comprehensive plan of operations 
among all denominations was to be executed, but the headquarters 
where the activity which the previous course of things had put into 
the hands of the Moravian Church was to be prosecuted. Naturally 
then, the Indian missions became relatively more prominent, as a 
department of activity, for in this the Moravian Church then stood 
practically alone. The devoted David Brainerd, whose efforts among 
the Indians along the Delaware and in other regions are referred to 
occasionally in the Bethlehem records, departed this life on October 
9, 1747. The Rev. John Brainerd, his brother, who took up his work 
in the previous April among the Indians of Crossweeksung, and 
had located at Cranberry, N. J., failed to establish it satisfactorily 
there, in consequence of complications about the land, which, 

4 Among contributions received from Europe by the Society for the Furtherance of the 
Gospel, for the benefit of Indian missions, were several invoices of wares from these York- 
shire mills. 

5 This house, then "outside" the village, is yet standing on the north side of Market 
Street opposite the old cemetery, and is marked by a tablet attached to it in Bethlehem's 
sesqui-centennial year, 1892. The addition built to the west side of it in 1753, for the first 
general store and trading-place of the settlement, was removed several years before the town 
became 150 years old. Horsfield was the successor (1752) of Antes as Justice of the Peace 
at Bethlehem. When he located here he put his Long Island home at the disposal of the 
Church. A school for boys was opened there in the spring of 1750, under the supervision 
of jasper Payne and James Greening, in connection with evangelistic efforts in the vicinity. 
In December, 1750, John Doehling, the teacher, moved the school into " a house near the 
ferry." 



230 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

together with the interference of persons inimical to the mission and 
desiring its disintegration, led the converts,. for the most part, to 
leave the place and scatter before the close of 1749. During the 
year there are various allusions to them, and to their intention 
of seeking a new location at or near Gnadenhuetten. Mr. Brain- 
erd, coming for a while under the iniluence of those untiring 
assailants of the Brethren who were distinguishing themselves in 
his denomination by their zeal in this sort of activity, declared that 
"if what Gilbert Tennent had written about the Moravians was true, 
he had rather see the Indians remain heathen than become Mora- 
vians." Fortunately the rabid things which this redoubtable defender 
of the faith and the State against the Moravian menace, and others 
who had joined in the campaign, said about them were not true. 
Brainerd evidently so concluded when he visited Bethlehem in 
October with the Rev. Mr. Lawrence who preached in the Irish 
settlement. He took friendly counsel about the Indian problem with 
the missionaries at Bethlehem, against whom he had some months 
before warned his Indians, after reading Mr. Tennent's statements. 
Just before his visit, a number of the Indians from Cranberry who 
had become so dissatisfied that the}' could no longer be persuaded 
to remain, had come to Bethlehem and then proceeded on their 
way, intending to visit Gnadenhuetten. Bishop CammerhofT, finding 
these Indians at Bethlehem on October 21, when he returned from 
a journey, and fearing the complications that might ensue from their 
visit to Gnadenhuetten, set out at once for that place to have a 
consultation with the missionaries stationed there and to caution 
the Indian congregation to be on their guard, to show themselves 
friendly but to answer discreetly, and not let themselves be 
persuaded into any plan for joining interests. The danger that lay 
in this became apparent later, when it transpired that this disaffected 
remnant of David Brainerd's once flourishing Indian congregation 
was worked upon by emissaries from the tribes that had been drawn 
into alliance with the French. Many of them, like sundry Moravian 
converts, not remaining true to their profession, became agents to 
sow discord and bring the peaceable and loyal Indians under 
suspicion. Some of the Cranberry Indians halted about eight miles 
from Bethlehem, on the Gnadenhuetten road, and spent the winter 
there. Their occasional presence among the Indians at Bethlehem 
and at Gnadenhuetten, at that early stage of the slowly-working 
intrigues to alienate the Delawares, as well as the Shawanese, from 



1749 1755- 239 

English interests, was dreaded almost more by the Brethren than 
that of strange and savage Indians. Their converts would be far 
less likely to heed the counsels of the latter than those of-Indians 
who came to them as fellow-Christians. This is also the reason why 
renegade Moravian Indians, during the following years, were much 
more troublesome than savages who tried to allure the faithful ones. 
This first contact with the disaffected Indians from Cranberry thus 
proved to be the beginning of a series of perplexing experiences 
which culminated in the horrors of 1755. Therefore it is introduced 
at this point. 

During the summer of 1749, it also became clear that the hope 
entertained for a while, of being able to resuscitate the missions in 
New York and Connecticut, was vain. Although Moravian minis- 
trations among those who stayed there in preference to emigrating, 
and who remained faithful, continued at intervals for more than ten 
years longer, the blind intolerance that ruled the counsels of the 
Province of New York would not let the work live. Therefore, 
further bands of the converts followed those who had first come 
to Bethlehem. The faithful young missionary, David Bruce, brought 
a company of twenty-nine from Wechquadnach to Bethlehem, the 
middle of May, 1749, less than two months before his lamented 
death at that persecuted mission. These, added for a season to the 
number yet sojourning in Friedenshuetten, at Bethlehem's feet, near 
the Monocacy, and another little company, temporarily living to the 
north of the place "above Burnside's land near the creek," consti- 
tuted quite a congregation of them gathered, at this time, in the 
vicinity. 

They, with a delegation of the Gnadenhuetten Indians, participated, 
on June 9, in a highly interesting service at Bethlehem, which, in 
a more tangible manner than the polyglot service of song referred 
to in the preceding chapter, indicated the broad range of Moravian 
missionary efforts. On May 6, the missionary Zander, whose wife 
Magdalena Miller formerly of Germantown, had died at sea on the 
voyage, arrived in Bethlehem with his two little children from Berbice 
in South America. With him came the missionary Grabenstein, and 
two }'Oung men from Berbice, Lorenz Van Wilier and Christian 
Eggert. The last-named became a resident of Bethlehem. They 
had landed at Bristol, R. I., the middle of April, after a protracted 
voyage. They brought with them, besides a four-j^ear-old mulatto 
boy, Ari, an Arawack Indian girl, Elizabeth, sixteen years of age. 



240 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

An Arawack boy, John Renatus,'' brought from Berbice in 1748 b)' 
Matthew Reuz, was also in Bethlehem at this time. 

The missionary Stacli was yet sojourning at the place with his 
Greenlanders. They were preparing to leave and a farewell service 
was to be held. When two Indian helpers came from Gnadenhuetten, 
on June 4, to see the Greenlanders and bring them fraternal 
greetings from their congregation, they were commissioned to invite 
as many of the Gnadenhuetten Indians as could come, to attend this 
farewell service on the 9th. They, as well as the Indians of Beth- 
lehem, were greatly interested in the Greenlanders, examined their 
native costume with much curiosity and tried to find what similarity 
there might be between their language and their own, as also that 
of the Arawacks. This unique service, with which a lovefeast was 
connected, took place in the chapel of the Brethren's House. The 
Greenlanders, in their native dress, were the central figures of the 
group. Next to them sat the Arawacks and, in a circle around them, 
were gathered all the Indians present, Delawares, Mohicans, Wam- 
panoags, and others, with a few negroes, and such missionaries who 
then happened to be in Bethlehem. The outer circle of the group 
consisted of the children and adults of Bethlehem. One of the 
features of the occasion was the singing of several hymns that had 
been translated into their respective languages — the same hymns 
simultaneously to the same tunes ; the white congregation joining in 
English and German, and the whole being led by wind and stringed 
instruments. One record calls it "an incomparable concert." At 
the evening service, the Greenlanders appeared once more in their 
own peculiar garb. The missionary Stach spoke to them about the 
significance of the occasion and then, in the Greenland tongue, said 
the final words of farewell in their name to the congregation. 

He went with them to Philadelphia, the next day, to call on Gov- 
ernor Hamilton at his special request, and proceeded from there to 
New York. Christian David, who had been busily engaged in getting 
the timber to New York for a store-house he was commissioned to 
build in Greenland — helping the carpenters meanwhile at the new 
house of Nazareth, the main structure of the group that in later 
years was known as Old Nazareth — followed them to Philadelphia 
on the I2th, and from there also went to New York, where Captain 

6 Renatus was taken to Europe by Zander and Grabenstein in October, 1749, and Eliza- 
beth died at Bethlehem, June iS, 1750. 



1749 1755- 241 

Garrison had the Irene in readiness to sail. The passengers were 
Matthew and Thomas Stach, with their wives — Thomas had been 
married, June 2, to Elizabeth Lisberger — Christian David and 
Catherine Paulsen. They left the dock on June 2i, and, after taking 
on a supply of drinking water at Staten Island, put to sea early on 
the -morning of the 23d. This was a remarkable expedition and one 
of those voyages that justified the statements made about the Irene, 
that she was "as strong as a tower," and was "a very superior sailer;" 
also the testimony given Captain Garrison, that he had few equals 
at the time as a skillful navigator. They made the voyage to Green- 
land in twent3'"-six days, lay there fourteen days, during which time 
Christian David built the provision-house for which he had taken 
the timber along, all ready framed to be set up, and in six weeks 
after this task was completed, they were safely back at New York, 
with the Greenland missionaries Frederick Boehnisch and wife on 
board, to go to Europe on the Irene when she sailed again. Christian 
David left the ship at Sandy Hook and hastened ahead to announce 
their safe return. To the astonishment and joy of every one, he 
suddenly appeared in Bethlehem on September 13. None were 
thinking of the Irene as yet possibly back from Greenland. Without 
delay. Captain Garrison made preparations for another voyage to 
Europe, and, the first week in October, was ready to sail. Bishop 
John de Watteville's work in America was finished, and he prepared 
at once to take passage on the church-ship. Bishop Spangenberg 
and his wife had closed their temporary labors in Philadelphia and 
came to Bethlehem. Early on the morning of October 6, thej' bade 
farewell to the place and left for New York to make the final prepar- 
ations for the voyage, with Bishop David Nitschmann and wife, who 
also returned to Europe. They were followed by one of the Beth- 
lehem wagons containing the last baggage of the company. With 
the wagon went David Wahnert and wife, the missionaries Boehnisch 
and wife. Zander and Grabenstein, the Arawack boy John Rena- 
tus, the widow of the missionary John Hagen, and a young man, 
Gottfried Hoffman, who had come with Grube's company in 1748 
and now returned to Europe. A merchant, Lefferts, is also men- 
tioned as taking passage with them from New York. Bishop deWat- 
teville and his wife left Bethlehem on October 7, accompanied by 
various officials. Henry Antes, who, at first, intended to take leave 
of them at the Delaware, there concluded to make it his gallant duty 



242 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to himself drive the chaise that he had procured for the accommoda- 
tion of "Sister Benigna," all the way to New York and look after 
her personal comfort. It seemed very empty at Bethlehem after 
their departure, with so manj' others accompanying them to New 
York, remarks the chronicler. After some delay, the Irene left her 
dock, October 15, and finally sailed of? from Sandy Hook at sunrise 
on the i6th. There the gentle and devoted Cammerhoff took his last 
leave of them on earth and returned on a pilot boat. He journeyed 
afoot to Philadelphia to make another official tour, and threw himself 
with greater energy than before into the arduous labors of his remain- 
ing brief term of service. These labors were mainly in connection with 
the Indian missions which were now to be prosecuted with renewed 
vigor. Some incidents of this work during the following year, which 
belong essentially to the course of events, and with which he was 
conspicuously associated, may be mentioned here. At two Synods 
held before the close of 1749, one in August in Philadelphia, and 
another in November at Warwick in Lancaster County, the Indian 
missions constituted the most prominent subject deliberated on. 
Moreover, in July, 1749, de Watteville had, in company with Span- 
genberg, CammerhoiT, Pyrlaeus and Nathanael Seidel, met the 
deputies of the Six Nations in Philadelphia, when they were there 
for an interview with the Governor. On that occasion, de Watteville 
renewed the covenant made with them by Zinzendorf in 1742, and 
the way was prepared for sending missionaries among them, not- 
withstanding the hostility in New York and the precarious condition 
of things generally, as regards government relations to this dominant 
Indian confederacy. In connection with that covenant the Indian 
deputies, who honored de Watteville as the son-in-law and messenger 
of Johanan- — the name by which Zinzendorf was known among them — 
adopted him into one of their clans and gave him the name Tgari- 
hontie — the messenger.'' 

7 As a matter of curiosity, the names by which various others were known among the 
Indians may be here mentioned. Spangenberg, in 1745, received the name Tgirhitontie 
(row of trees); Zeisberger, in 1745, that of Ganousscracheri {on \\it yaxci^vcC); CammerhoflF, 
in 1748, that of Gafe/jOTw (good words); Pyrlaeus, in 1748, that of Tganniatarechev Qa^Xsv^tn 
two seas); Mack, in 1748, Ganachragejat (the first man or leader); Seidel, 1748, Arenuntschi 
(the head), Rauch was known as Z^higochgoharo. Anton Schmidt, when he went to Sha- 
mokin, was given the name Rachwistoni. John Joseph Bull, who was commonly known as 
Shebosh (running water), was also called Hajingonis (twister of tobacco). Post bore the 
name Ahamawad. On one occasion the explanation was made to some of the missionaries 
by the Indians that all were given names, in this way, because their German and English 
names were too difficult to be pronounced by them. Their judgement on this question of 
comparative difficulty would hardly find universal acceptance. 



1/49 1755- 243 

Those consultations led also to a conviction that it was important 
to make the life at Gnadenhuetten as agreeable as possible for their 
Indian converts, and to put forth every effort to hold them together 
.at that point, while endeavoring to prevent the scattering of those 
who yet lingered about Bethlehem. This was felt to be increasingly 
desirable amid the prevailing public conditions and in view of the 
signs of the times, which the Brethren did not fail to discern, even 
if their quiet perseverence in the effort to push out farther into the 
Indian country with their evangelistic work, seemed to some of 
their friends to indicate that they were not aware of the critical devel- 
opments. Those who took a sinister view of their movements became 
more firmly persuaded that there must be some kind of an under- 
standing between them and the secret conspirators which made them 
feel safe among the Indians everywhere. There were some restless 
.spirits at Gnadenhuetten who needed patient, watchful care, and some 
of those at Bethlehem were not reliable. Not only was it the desire of 
the Brethren to keep a firm hold on all these for their own good, but 
also to prevent them from becoming agents of mischief. Hence, when 
dissatisfaction began to be expressed by some at Gnadenhuetten with 
the stiff clay soil of the ridge, and the idea was also fostered among 
them that they ought to have more land, steps were at once taken 
to remove this cause of discontent and possible pretext for yielding 
to the persuasions of schemers who were tampering with them, and 
for removing to Wyoming. In March, 1750, a tract of 130 acres 
of rich bottom-land was purchased of Secretary Peters, on the east 
side of the river, for £75. There, in May, 1754, their. nineteen cabins 
transferred from Gnadenhuetten, were set up again in another vil- 
lage which suited them better and was called New Gnadenhuetten. 
The mission compound on the other side continued to be 
occupied by the corps there stationed to carry on the 
work. At the very time when the new tract of land was pur- 
chased, an event occurred at Gnadenhuetten that first brought con- 
spicuously to the front the famous Indian who, above all others, was 
associated with the plots and intrigues of the following years. In 
connection with the baptism of certain Indians, on March 16, 1750, 
the statement is on record that "another Indian, a half-brother of 
Nicodemus and Peter, Tadeuscont, called among the English Honest 
John, who had long been acquainted with the Brethren, had repeat- 
edly asked to be baptized." It is stated that it was decHned "for the 
-present," there being misgivings about his case. Finally, after much 



244 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

hesitation, he was baptized at Gnadenhuetten, together with his wife, 
on March 19, by Bishop Camraerhoff. His position among the 
Indians, his commanding personaHty, his tribal and family preten- 
sions, and his previous character as a reckless man who gloried in 
his contempt of all restraints and of the opinions of others in refer- 
ence to his conduct, served to render the occasion a peculiarly 
impressive one for the Indian congregation. Teedyuscung^ received 
the name Gideon, which would have been eminently suitable if he 
had proven to be such a man as Wasamapah the Mohican. His wife 
was named Elizabeth. 

At this period, pilgrimages to and fro between Bethlehem and 
another point on the border of the Indian country became frequent. 
This was the village of Meniolagomeka, in the valley of the Aquan- 
shicola Creek, north of the Blue Mountains, where Zinzendorf had 
stopped on his first tour in 1742, and various missionaries had 
occasionally visited. In 1749, the chief of the village was baptized 
at Gnadenhuetten and in 1752, a regular mission was established 
there. It came to an untimely end in May, 1755, when the Indians 
were compelled to remove because the land was wanted. They 
retired to Gnadenhuetten and recruited that station, from which 
twenty of the people had been lured away to Wyoming by Teedyus- 
cung in May, 1754, in spite of all the efforts of the missionaries. The 
journal of a Synod held at Bethlehem in March, 1750, records that 
at that time there were 102 baptized Indians at Gnadenhuetten and 
about 20 at Meniolagomeka." 



8 There is hardly a limit to the variations in the spelling of his Indian name to be found 
in print and manuscript, then and since — Deedjascon, Dadjiiscong, Tadeuscong, Tadeiis- 
citnd^ Tadyitscong^ Tcdeitscont^ Teedeitscujid^ Teedcitscitng^ Teedyuscttiig, etc. The last, 
having become one of the most common forms, will be used in these pages, without 
attempting to decide which is the most correct. Cammerhoff, in the record of his baptism 
in the Bethlehem register, calls him " ein Kar e^oxv grosser Swider." The Greek expression 
is used in Acts 25 : 23 — " principal men " — and Camraerhoff means what St. Paul says of 
himself, I. Tim. 1:15, the chief of sinners. Unfortunately, as subsequent events proved, 
Teedyuscung dK not cease to be this after his baptism. At this very time he was un- 
doubtedly trying to inveigle the Gnadenhuetten Indians. 

9 The site of this village in Smith's Valley, on the north side of the Aquanshicola, eight 
miles west of the Wind Gap, is marked by a granite monument erected by the Moravian 
Historical Society and dedicated October 22, 1901. It stands near the side of the road that 
leads up from the creek towards Kunkeltown on the farm of the aged Benjamin Schmidt, 
who generously manifested his interest in this desire to preserve the historic associations of 
the spot from oblivion. 



1749 1755- 245 

The increase of travel between Bethlehem and the Indian country, 
occasioned by the opening of this new station, added to the uneasy 
suspicions of the people living in the neighborhood between, espe- 
cially so the frequent coming and going of Indians which could not be 
prevented. But far more excitement was caused by the malicious 
stories set afloat through New York and Pennsylvania by evil- 
minded persons, and believed by many anxious people who had no 
means for ascertaining the truth, in connection with an extraordinary 
journey undertaken by Cammerhofif in company with David Zeis- 
berger to Onondago, in the summer of 1750. Cammerhofif started 
from Bethlehem with some companions on May 14, was joined by 
Zeisberger far up the country and, after they had journeyed about 
sixteen hundred miles by canoe, afoot and on horse-back, they got 
back to Bethlehem at midnight on August 16, with Cammerhofif's 
health permanently impaired and his constitution broken. This jour- 
ney was undertaken with government sanction and passport, and 
was in pursuance of a preliminary understanding had with the depu- 
ties of the Six Nations at the treaty of the previous August. Its 
sole object was to gain a foothold for permanent missionary work 
among people under their control. It was a journey of such extra- 
ordinary hardship and attended with so much adventure that the 
narrative reads like a romance. The result was such public sensation 
created by the wild fictions circulated in reference to it, that an 
ofificial examination by the government of Pehnsylvania became 
necessary to clear these heroic men and the authorities at Bethlehem 
from the suspicion engendered. This, of course, did not change the 
minds of those who were determined to think evil and to believe 
no good of their movements. Thus, with the renewed efforts for the 
evangelization of the Indians, at a time when the ominous outlook in 
the matter of relations to them kept the minds of so many in a state 
of constant dread, the eye of suspicion was anew turned upon Beth- 
lehem. 

This was contemplated, however, with less anxiety by men at 
Bethlehem, like Antes, who were most capable of understanding the 
whole situation and were of most service in explaining the principles 
and purposes of the Brethren to people of all kinds and in correcting 
popular misapprehensions, than the internal tendencies that had 
set in since Spangenberg's retirement, and were being propagated 
by his successor, John Nitschmann, supported by the new element 
he had brought with him to Bethlehem. Nitschmann beean his 



246 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

administration with the understanding that he was to foster and 
estabhsli certain things that were products of the unhealthy spirit 
which was then prevaihng in the central circles in Europe and in some 
respects yet holding Zinzendorf under a spell for a season; things 
which, although promulgated from headquarters, Spangenberg had 
been discreetly evading. They had taken pronounced form and 
become matters of deliberate official annunciation in Europe since 
Cammerhoff came to Pennsylvania, at an earlier stage of the 
distemper, and are therefore not to be laid to his charge. They 
were advanced to a certain degree by de Watteville before he left 
Bethlehem, but with caution and with an inteUigent tact superior 
to that of the man now installed to bring the spirit, language and 
practices of Bethlehem into full accord with the most recent fancies. 
The things thus referred to were an exaggerated idealizing of certain 
offices and functions ; the adoption of unwarrantable titles and 
prerogatives by the incumbents, corresponding to this ; the exaltation 
of the persons to a kind of spiritual pre-eminence and a laudation of 
them in over-wrought terms that were distasteful to sober-minded 
people, startling when suddenly introduced and regarded as danger- 
ous. With this came methods of conducting internal affairs in the 
spirit of these eccentricities and the cultivation of a novel liturgical 
system elaborated to give expression to the underlying conceptions. 
While Zinzendorf was not responsible for every absurdity that issued 
from this tendency, yet primarily it was all the fruit of his propensity, 
already mentioned, to follow out and experimentally apply every 
idea or fancy with which he started, to the utmost extent and in 
minutest detail. This eccentric regime brought in by John Nitsch- 
mann was something later than the mere reveling in extravagant 
language that is associated with Cammerhoff. The latter had been 
more tolerable to solid and staid men at Bethlehem than what now 
followed, for they had recognized under the effervescing surface the 
sound, true gospel of the cross. They were impressed by his heroic, 
self-sacrificing devotion to arduous duty. He was as ready as any 
of them to endure every kind of hardness ; was gentle, unassuming, 
and won the hearts of all. 

John Nitschmann's name is not associated with apostolic labors 
among the Indians, like that of Cammerhoff. It cannot be said 
of him that he was "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 
wilderness, in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in 
cold and nakedness," to carry the word of life to brutal savages 



1749 1755- 247 

and to serve men of every kind in the spirit of his Divine 
Master, as can be said of CammerhofT. The sturdy men who 
laid the material and spiritual foundations of Bethlehem, who 
battled with the stern realities of the beginning, who opened the 
farms and built the mills while they preached the gospel of the love 
of Christ in plainness to plain people, w^ere personally attached to 
Cammerhoff, with all his extravagancies and in spite of the fact that 
he was sent to work at cross purposes in certain respects with the 
policy of Spangenberg, whom they esteemed above all others, but 
who was not considered sufficiently imbued with the spirit of the 
time by those in control in Europe. Antes, Garrison, Horsfield, 
Payne, Brownfield and other such men who were of most value 
at the time and were Spangenberg's most staunch friends loved 
Cammerhofif, notwithstanding all this. The Indians sent messages 
of sorrow from distant places when they heard that he had passed 
away, and years afterward the name of Galichzvio, by which they 
knew him, was spoken among them with reverence and affection. 
His memory deserves to be exonerated from the exclusive respon- 
sibility for introducing fanatical tendencies at Bethlehem which has 
commonly been laid upon him by Moravian writers. 

He was the diarist and correspondent with the European author- 
ities during the greater part of his term of service at Bethlehem. He 
was a voluminous writer who went into great detail on all subjects 
and wrote without reserve in the kind of expressions he was accus- 
tomed to use. Thus what there was in his words and ways that was 
objectionably eccentric became conspicuous afterwards in the written 
evidences. John Nitschmann did very little of the writing. He was 
the central manager who gave the impulse and steered the course 
of things. His chief mission was to establish himself at headquarters 
and press the innovations he was authorized to introduce. He had 
been held in high esteem in Europe and had rendered service in 
various ways that was much prized. He enjoyed the full confidence 
of those who wished him ■ to rectify what were thought, in the 
infatuation of the time, to be internal defects of Spangenberg's 
administration. Not only did he throw himself completely into that 
infatuation, so that he was not disposed to be cautious and reserved 
in propagating it, but he thought himself under obligation to follow 
the letter of his instructions blindly, no matter what obstacles and 
embarrassments he met. Lacking the degree of scholarly culture 
possessed by Spangenberg and Cammerhoff, as well as the broad- 



248 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

mindedness, the extensive knowledge of men and things and the 
excellent common sense and tact that distinguished the former, he 
was not able to see where and how he ought to adapt himself and 
his course to conditions that were different from those out of which 
he had come and different from what he anticipated. From first to 
last, he quite failed to get into touch with his larger surroundings in 
the New World. 

He moreover felt fortified in things which he soon discovered 
were not acceptable to those who were the most substantial and 
forceful men at Bethlehem, for most of those whom he had 
brought over with him had come right out of the atmosphere 
of Herrnhaag and rallied around him. Some, previously at Bethle- 
hem, were drawn in, and in the summer of 1750, a large colony of 
those who had made up the population of the Herrnhaag Brethren's 
House and had been constrained to emigrate when the abandonment 
of the place became necessary, arrived at Bethlehem with yet more 
offensive assumption of superiority over against the original congre- 
gation and yet more distasteful parade of sentimental puerilities ; 
posing, besides, as persecuted exiles deserving admiration. Many of 
them, when they later came to their senses and settled down to 
soberness, became stalwart pillars in the Church, but many were 
unreliable and unsound — mere useless nurslings. They spoke in 
terms of disparagement of the people who were previously at Beth- 
lehem and strutted before them like religious coxcombs, assuming to 
be the select clientelage of the man at the head. A schism was cre- 
ated between "the old congregation and the new congregation." 
Many of the former were filled with grief and indignation. 

Some resented such assumptions and spoke their minds plainly to 
certain of the new-comers, who had stepped in to enjoy the fruits of 
their sacrifice and toil, but hardly any dared to express open dissent 
and object to the innovations in official quarters. One man, however, 
whose position was such that he most readily could, did so honestly 
and fearlessly. This was Henry Antes. Not only was the new 
departure, with its speech and manner, exceedingly distasteful to him 
personally, just as it was to other sensible men at Bethlehem, but 
he discerned under it the beginning of a drift away from scriptural 
soundness, and recognized a new occasion that would be given for 
sensational public discussion of the Brethren. He understood — as 
John Nitschniann and those who went with him did not — how serious, 
in spite of the act of Parliament passed in 1749, the constant agita- 
tions of those who were trying to inflame the public against them 



1749 1755- 249 

as alleged Papists, and therefore allies of the French, intriguing with 
the Indians, might become, if anything within the Church should 
seem to lend new color to this accusation. He knew the readiness 
of ill-informed and credulous masses to exaggerate every eccentricity 
or oddity reported of Bethlehem and to draw groundless inferences. 

Therefore, when he heard absurd titles applied to Zinzendorf, to 
Anna Nitschmann and to others who held general offices of a spir- 
itual nature among men or women, and heard John Nitschmann 
declare that the members must all now call these persons by such 
names according to instructions from abroad — names that could be 
easily construed by some people as indicating Romish institutions, 
orders and functions ; by other people as evidences of fanatical mys- 
ticism like that into which Conrad Beisel had led the Ephrata com- 
munity — he found in this something far more objectionable and 
ominous than the mere affectation of spiritual child-talk in which 
CammerhofI and others had before been indulging. He wrote a 
plain, manly letter to Zinzendorf on the subject in September, 1749. 
He had been in correspondence with him occasionally since 1743. 
To his great perplexity this letter remained unanswered. Subse- 
quently he became convinced that it had been intercepted in Europe 
and had never been seen by the Count. He followed this with pro- 
tests and even entreaties addressed to Bishop John Nitschmann, face 
to face and in writing. Failing to accomplish anything, he concluded 
to go to Europe and present the case to Zinzendorf and the general 
conference personally, but, although he was encouraged to do so by 
leading men at Bethlehem, his wife objected and he did not go. 

Under these trying circumstances John Nitschmann became some- 
what obstinate and imperious, and, in addition to other blunders, 
played the martinet in disciplinary matters, going to lengths so auda- 
cious, in dealing with recalcitrants, that Antes, as local magistrate, 
w^arned him that he would not only create fatal dissension and jeopar- 
dize everything that had been accomplished at Bethlehem, but might 
even get himself into serious trouble under the law of the Province. 
In this blind pursuance of -what he understood by his "instructions" 
and this infatuated determination to assert the authority with which 
he thought himself clothed, he was sustained by his wife, who had 
been placed in similar authority over all the female membership — a 
woman of rare gifts, intense devotion and great personal influence, 
but, like her husband, carried off beyond reason by the idea of the 
functions supposed to be committed to them ; sustained also by 



250 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Samuel Krause, who had been sent over with him as coadjutor at 
Nazareth in his efforts to bring things in Pennsylvania into "com- 
plete conformity." 

Finally Antes tried to persuade the Bishop to simply suppress 
the objectionable sayings and doings of the "new congregation" 
and to let the pecuHar innovations in official regime and terminology,, 
in which Nitschmann appealed to his "instructions," stand in 
abeyance until proper communications with the authorities in Europe 
could be had; for Antes believed that if the case was properly 
stated to Zinzendorf, in connection with his interview with Spangen- 
berg, everything would be set right. In this effort he was supported 
by Cammerhoff and Nathanael Seidel, whose official connection with 
Nitschmann and partial agreement with his course on the one hand, 
and their warm attachment to Antes and to the "old congregation" 
on the other, made their position very embarrassing. John Nitsch- 
mann, shut off to the choice between receding even to this extent or 
breaking with Antes and risking all that this might involve, chose 
the latter, and then Antes concluded to withdraw from Bethlehem, 
retire to his farm and there, out of immediate connection with the 
things which he could not be reconciled to, await further develop- 
ments. His breach was only with John Nitschmann officially and 
with current tendencies which he believed would be rectified in due 
time. Meanwhile he felt that less harm would be done by his quiet 
withdrawal than by the possible further centralizing of factions pra 
and con if he remained at Bethlehem. 

While much consternation followed the announcement of his 
intentions, and there were rumors on all sides of others doing 
likewise, Antes used the great influence he possessed among the 
former residents of Bethlehem and the Nazareth stations, in the 
interests of peace and quiet and patient waiting. He faithfully 
completed the work he had in hand, especially the important large 
mill^" on the Bushkill where the colony of Friedensthal was estab- 

10 This mill, built east of Nazareth, where the first purchase of 324 acres was made in 
the autumn of 1749, " at the kill." as the place was called for a while — Lefevre's Creek, 
Leheitan, Bushkill — was the largest and most complete that Antes had erected for the 
Economy. Work at the spot was commenced, January 6, 1750. and, August 21, the first 
grinding was celebrated by a lovefeast in the mill. A visitor in April, 1751, thus described 
its mechanism : " It grinds and bolts all at once, there being no trouble in hoisting the Hour 
as in common mills, but as the stones deliver it so the bolting cloth receives it, and so.it is 
bolted as fast as ground. Another contrivance, which is very extraordinary, is that when 
the wheat is within about a peck of being ground out of the hopper, there is a slick so 
fixed that one end shall strike against the stone as it runs round which has a bell fastened at 



1749 I75S- 251 

lished, and got all the affairs with which he was further connected 
into such a shape that he could give them what further attention 
they required from him at his home or by occasionally coming to 
Bethlehem, and on the morning of September 5, 1750 — before day- 
break, when few were astir, in order to avoid painful scenes 
— he started with his wife and some of his children for Frederick- 
town.^^ Cammerhoff accompanied him, weeping, across the river 
and some distance on the way, and then took an affectionate leave 
of him and turned sadly back to Bethlehem. 

When Antes reached his home, the premises which he had turned 
over to the use of the Church in 1745 were nearly vacated. The 
flourishing school was closed. John Nitschmann, having determined 
not to yield any points and knowing that this would cause a breach 
between them, instituted measures, without consulting Antes, to 
remove the children from Fredericktown. These were carried into 
effect in August, 1750. On the 12th of that month a number of boys 
were taken to the Maguntsche school and a few of the Indian boys 
were removed to Bethlehem and Gnadenhuetten. Two weeks later 
the remaining boys were placed in the school at Oley. Pyrlaeus and 
his wife, who had stood at the head of the work, came to Bethlehem 
the first week of September, with Peter Sehner and wife, John Mich- 

the otlier end, which rattles in a surprising manner, to give the miller warning that the mill 
is near running empty." In this contrivance, which seemed a novelty to that visitor, many 
a reader will recognize a familiar feature of old-time grist-mills. It was equipped with 
double water-wheels and two run of stones. The settlement which arose there received the 
name Friedensthal — Vale of Peace — at the dedication of its community house and the 
organization of its milling, farming, dairying and stock-raising personnel, with chaplain, 
steward, etc., April 27, 1751, in the season just after Easter, when the peace greeting of the 
risen Lord called to mind, suggested the name. The mill was stockaded and turned into a 
fort during the Indian war, 1755-56. The property was sold to private parties by the 
church authorities in 1771, and a second mill was built there in 1794. The history of 
Friedensthal and its Stockaded Mill, entertainingly written by the Rev. \Vm. C. Reichel, is 
to be found in Vol. II, Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society. 

II Some readers, to whom the whole subject is new, may fail to appreciate the reason for 
introducing this episode, little to the credit of those in control at Bethlehem Like the 
general fanatical distemper of that period with which it was connected, it might have been 
passed with a brief reference or left quite untouched, if it were never mentioned by other 
writers. But since it has been frequently written about and occasionally over-stated, mis- 
stated or alluded to in that manner which sets readers to guessing, or perhaps drawing 
groundless inferences in view of the many calumnies of the time that have found their way 
into print, it has seemed best to present the whole offence given — the gravest that Antes 
himself ever adduced against them according to his own statements. It is true, as some- 
times stated, that he objected to the sudden introduction of robing by Bishop John Nitsch- 



252 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ler and several farm laborers who had been employed at the estab- 
Hshment. John Levering and his wife and Peter Braun accompanied 
the detachment to Oley. Dr. Adolph Meyer and wife remained 
after this at Fredericktown. September 14, he brought the closed 
out accounts of the institution to Bethlehem and returned two days 
later, and thus ended the history of the Fredericktown school. 

In this connection the various changes made in the schools to the 
next epoch may be noted. Financial strain in the summer of 1751 
caused the abandonment of the important Oley school, which had been 
organized in February, 1748. The institution was closed on Septem- 
ber 10, when the boys were transferred to Maguntsche — after this 
more frequently spoken of as Salisbury — and the girls of this latter 
school, as previously stated, were brought to Bethlehem with those 
from Oley, during the following two weeks and distributed between 
the boarding-school and its adjunct in the Ysselstein house on the 
south side, the school history of which to the end has already been 
given. In August, 1753, the authorities decided to close the boys' 
school at Salisbury and on the 27th of that month fourteen boys were 
brought from there to Bethlehem and quartered in a room in the 
Brethren's House, which had been occupied by the boys of the Beth- 
lehem school now domiciled in one of the log houses on the site of 
the present church. In December, 1754, however, it was concluded 
to move them back to Salisbury, and this was done, January 10, 1755, 

mann at the celebration of communion, May 2, 1750, the first time a surplice was worn by a 
Moravian minister in Pennsylvania. But a large-minded man like Antes would not have 
made an open grievance of a thing like this, even if he were strongly averse to it, under 
circumstances otherwise normal. Associating it as an innovation with the more important 
things against which he had protested, his disturbed mind found in it the proverbial " last 
straw," while he thought with dread of the ill-natured gossip this new thing, so unfamiliar 
in the region, would stir up among those who were watching for new evidences of ''Romish 
practices," in addition to the foregoing offences of following the new style dates of a 
" Popish," calendar, kneeling in worship, etc., which vigilant neighbors had made much ado 
about. Another point, always in question, has been the extent to which his removal from 
Bethlehem meant withdrawal from the Moravian Church. That it was quite generally so 
interpreted and published abroad by those with whom the wish was father to the thought, is 
very natural, and even Moravian writers have frequently adopted this supposition. A more 
complete examination of the subject in the light of all authentic sources of information 
extant, including statements by Antes himself and subsequent lists of members, than has 
probably been given to it hitherto by any one, has made it quite clear to the writer of these 
pages that his removal from Bethlehem was not so intended by him and was not so regarded 
afterwards by the Church authorities. Antes considered himself and was considered in the 
fellowship of the Church to his death. 



1749 1755- 253 

when a new school was opened there, with Joachim Sensemann and 
wife in charge of the household and Hans Petersen serving as pre- 
ceptor, the whole under the general superintendence of John Ettwein 
and Francis Boehler with their wives, now in charge of the entire 
department of work among the children at outlying places. This 
school existed when the dire times to be treated of in the next chap- 
ter suddenly brought such peril to old and young at these places. 

Antes, after he returned to his farm, seems not to have visited 
Bethlehem until the following spring. He came early in March, to 
transact business, and went up to the Bushkill to examine the new 
mill and see that it was operating properly. He also had consulta- 
tions with those in charge of the work, in reference to the enlarge- 
ment of the grist-mill at Bethlehem, the building of a fulling-mill in 
connection with it, needed repairs to the bark-crushing-mill and the 
dye-house, the proposed extension of the Sisters' House and the 
building of another wing to the west of the Children's Home (''bell 
house") occupied by the boarding-school for girls, to contain a 
larger place of worship, a wing having been added on the east side 
in 1748, and one to the west in 1749. Some of these tasks were then 
being commenced. The large accession to the working-force the 
previous June^- rendered these undertakings possible, and the expec- 
tation of yet other colonists in the course of the following year, made 
it desirable to proceed with them as rapidly as possible. 

12 This lavge number of young men, mainly from Herrnhaag, in part also from the settle- 
ments of the Church in Holland, has already been referred to. They came under the 
leadership of Henry Jorde and are sometimes called the " Henry Jorde Colony." There 
were 81 besides Jorde, one of them being a Negro called " London," and they were accom- 
panied by two married couples : the Rev. Frederick Emanuel and Susan Maria Herrmann, 
and Francis and Sophia Steup. The most important man among them was Dr. John 
Matthew Otto, the second, and more distinguished, of these two brother-physicians of Beth- 
lehem, referred to in a previous chapter. This colony sailed on the Irene from London, 
May 9. put off from Dover, May 11, and reached New York, June 22. It is stated that 
they came up the bay enveloped in such a dense fog, the entire way from Sandy Hook, that all 
the seamen in the harbor were astonished at Captain Garrison's skill. They arrived at 
Bethlehem in squads from June 25 to July 2. On July 13, thirty of them located at Chris- 
tian s Spring. The following is the list for reference : 

Albrecht, John Andrew, Erd, Juslus, Fockel, John Godfrey, 

Baumgarten, George, Euler, Nicholas, Fockel, Samuel, 

Bergmann, Henry, Feldhausen, Chrk^topher, Fritz, Henry, 

Borheck, John Andrew, Feldhausen, Henry, Freyhube, Andrew, 

Eckhard, Zacharias, Feldhausen. John George, Fuss, Lucas, 

Ernst, Walter, Fockel, Godfrey, Gerstberger, Henry, 



2S4 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Besides the external improvements already mentioned, material 
additions to the agricultural and industrial equipment were made 
during 1750. A large increase of barn-space and stabling was in 
readiness for use before winter. A new blacksmith-shop, with facili- 
ties for the employment of more workmen to meet the growing needs 
of the Economy and the calls for such work from the surrounding 
region, was added. The establishment of a battery, long under dis- 
cussion, was also consummated. After the plan of locating it in the 
Ysselstein house, south of the river, had been abandoned, the build- 
ing formerly occupied by the blacksmiths and locksmith was fitted 
up for the purpose, the latter part of the year, and before the middle 
of January, 1751, it was put into operation. These various indus- 
tries, with the accumulating buildings of the stock-yard — the latter 
grouped about the original log-house of the settlement, in which the 
man in charge of this department was living — were strung along 
what is now the old west side of Main Street, from above the present 
Goundie's Alley, down to Church Street, and turning toward the Old 
York Road, the first thoroughfare following the Indian trail. That 
row, with the increasing cluster about the grist-mill below, made up 
the busy section of the place, which was an object of surprise and 
admiration to visitors. Nothing like it, in the extent and variety of 
industries, could have been found anywhere in the country, outside 



Giersch, Christian, 
Groen, John George, 
Gross, Andrew, 
Haensel, John Christian, 
Hasselberg, Abraham, 
Hege, Balthasar, 
Hennig, Paul, 
Herbst, John Henry, 
Herr, Samuel, 
Herrmann, Jacob, 
Heydecker, Jacob, 
Iloepfner, Chrisiian Henry, 
Hoffmann, John Gottlob, 
Hoffmann, Thomas, 
Ingebretsen, Eric, 
Jaencke, Andrew, 
Kornmann, John Theobald, 
Lange, John Gottlieb, 
Lauck, John Samuel, 
Lindemeyer, Henry, 
Loether, Christian Henry, 



London, the Negro, 
Ludwig, Carl, 
Lung, Jacob, 
Masner John George, 
Matthiesen, Christopher, 
Matthiesen, Nicholas, 
Merck, John Henry, 
Merkle, Christopher, 
Meyer, Jacob, 
Meyer, John Stephen, 
Meyer, Philip, 
Muensch, John, 
Muenster. Melchior, 
Nngel, John Jacob, 
Neilhock, 

Odenwald, John Michael, 
Ortlieb, John, 
Otto, John Matthew, 
Pell, John Peter, 
Presser, Martin, 
Petersen, Hans, 



Pfeil, Frederick Jacob, 
Pitzmann, John Michael, 
Priessing, Jacob, 
Ralffs, Marcus, 
Richling, John Henry, 
Richter, John, 
Roesler, Godfrey, 
Ruenger, Daniel, 
Sauter, Michael, 
Sherbeck, Paul Jansen, 
Schoen, Henry, 
Schweigert, George, 
Schwartz, Christian, 
Schwartz, Gottfried, 
Stauber, Paul Christian, 
Strauss, Abraham, 
Sydrich, John Daniel, 
Theodorus, 
Thomas, John, 
Wagenseil, John Andrew, 
Weber, Andrew. 



1749 1755- 255 

■of the several principal cities on the sea-board. A visitor, in April, 
1751, said: "Though this place at Bethlehem seems but small, you 
can scarcely mention any trade which is in the largest cit}' in this 
country, but what is at this place, and carried on after the best man- 
ner. "^^ 

On February i, 1751, the plans drawn for the new stone wing that 
was to complete the connection between the Community House and 
the girls' school, and to contain a larger place of worship, were 
examined and adopted. It was decided that this structure should be 
erected without delay, because of the pressing need that was observed 
already on Whit-Sunday, 1749, when the people had to assemble in 
successive sections to receive the communion, on account of the con- 
tracted quarters in the original chapel of the Community House. 
That chapel had remained in its first interior form, with the rough 
logs of the walls and the joists and flooring above appearing, until 
February, 1750, when it was plastered and two pillars of black wal- 
nut were placed in it to support the heavy ceiling. The excavation 
for the foundation of the new building was commenced on April 5, 
after the adoption of the plans, and the masons began their work at 
once. The most of the timber was floated down the Lehigh from 
the Gnadenhuetten saw-mill. On July 9, it was entirely finished and 
the next day, July 10, 1751, this second place of worship in Bethle- 
hem was dedicated. It was Saturdaj^, and at eleven o'clock the cus- 
tomary meeting and lovefeast for the children took place in the old 
•chapel. Then followed the dedicatory service in the new building, 
which was entirely filled by the adult congregation ; many being 
present "from the upper places" — an expression often used in refer- 
ence to the stations on the Nazareth land and Friedensthal — and 
some came from Maguntsche, or Salisbury. This service was in 
charge of Bishop John Nitschmann. He had composed some verses 
for the occasion that were sung, together with other hymns. After 
the service of consecration, a special service of the time, known as 
the Te Agjium, was sung kneeling. At the general "Sabbath love- 
feast," at one o'clock, a cantata arranged for the occasion was ren- 
dered by the musicians of Bethlehem, and at the close the Bishop 
discoursed on the watchword for the day: "And Sharon shall be a 
fold of flocks." — Isaiah 65:10. Besides these, there were two even- 
's This, and the remarks about the Friedensthal mill in note 10, from the journal of two 
young men, Kennedy and Higli, transcribed at the Delaware Water Gap, and published in 
the iVoimlain Echo, in August, 1879. 



256 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ing services for the communicant membership. The first was of the 
ordinary character — singing and prayer, with a discourse suitable to 
tlie hour. Tlie second consisted of another formal, chanted prayer 
characteristic of the time, called Te Pleuram, expressing the thoughts 
associated with the significance of the Saviour's pierced side. The 
regular order of daily evening prayer followed and closed the festivi- 
ties. Thus began the history of the present venerable "Old Chapel" 
of Bethlehem. 

The original roof of the building was of tiles. On account of their 
great weight, they were removed in 1753, and shingles were substi- 
tuted. Under the chapel a large dining-room for the married people 
was fitted up. It was opened on February 8, 1752, by a formal din- 
ner of roast venison, of which fifty men and thirty-two women par- 
took. Meanwhile, the other wing which formed the connection 
between the Sisters' House and the eastern end of the girls" school- 
building — "bell house" — was being completed, as an extension of 
the Sisters' House, affording a larger dining-room and a new dormi- 
tory and later the chapel of that institution. This new dining-room 
was first occupied on May 10, 1752, when a dinner of shad from a catch 
of a thousand made the previous day in the Lehigh — "many of them 
the size of the carp in Germany," remarks one chronicler — -was served 
to one hundred young women and girls. Yet other structures were 
under way, "or had in view, and the Gnadenhuetten saw-mill, which 
at that time was supplying all the lumber used at Bethlehem, was 
kept busy. It is recorded that on May 13, seventeen rafts and, two 
days later, fourteen rafts, containing together thirteen hundred 
boards, reached Bethlehem from that mill. The statement is made 
that these rafts were usually built one board's length and high enough 
that one man could steer and control two rafts. 

On September 2, 1751, the rebuilt grist-mill was put into opera- 
tion and on November 18, the fulling-mill, connected with it and 
worked by the same power, was started. A second run of stones 
was added to the mill and set to grinding. May 11, 1753, to meet the 
demand from an ever-widening extent of country that found the 
Bethlehem mill the most convenient and satisfactory. In June, 1752, 
the apothecary shop was finished and on July 10, Dr. Otto began 
to move the stock and outfit of his pharmacy from the room before 
occupied in the western wing of the girls' school-building into the 
new quarters. In October, a new building in which to break and 
prepare hemp was erected and on November 6, the masons com- 



1749 1755- 257 

menced work at an addition to Timothy Horsfield's house, ah'eady 
mentioned. After some delay this structure was finished in July, 
1753- O^ the 17th of that month the occupation of these subse- 
quently interesting and important apartments began. Here was 
opened the first general store and trading-place of Bethlehem, long 
desired by the numerous customers of the grist-mill and others of 
the surrounding region, and long planned as a desirable addition to 
the establishments of the village. 

At a meeting of the masters of trades, the previous March, the 
subject of stocking this store was discussed and over a hundred 
distinct items in the line of commodities for such a stock were 
enumerated that could be produced by industries then in operation at 
Bethlehem. Joseph Powell, who, by turns, was employed in evan- 
gelistic work and in various local capacities, had temporary charge of 
it until December 11, 1754, when it was entrusted to William 
Edmonds, who had been assisting at the Crown Inn, south of the 
river, and whose name was later associated with the tavern built in 
1752, north of Nazareth, known as "the Rose,"" having charge of the 
store that was carried on for a while there. Edmonds was elected to 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania in October, 1755, as the second repre- 
sentative from Northampton County. In that building were also 
quartered John Okely, the conveyancer and agent of the Bethlehem 
authorities in land matters ; Abraham Boemper and John Leighton 
who, in addition to other duties, were appointed to serve as 

14 For some years Friedensthal (note ic) and the Rose were mentioned together in refer- 
ences to the group of settlements, because of near neighborhood relation. That inn on the 
north-eastern confines of the Barony of Nazareth and by its name perpetuating the remem- 
brance of the quit-rent token — a red rose in June— associated with the domain, was designed 
originally to serve the double purpose of quartering the men who were to build the projected 
village of Gnadenstadt north of Nazareth — of which the only outcome was the organization, 
in 1762, of the congregation of Schoeneck (Fairnook) — and to accommodate travelers, up and 
down the Minnisink road, who often sought hospitality at Nazareth, which under existing 
arrangements was difficult to furnish. i6o acres, bordering on the Nazareth land, were 
surveyed as the site, January 3, 1752. The designs for the building were ordered by 
the board at Bethlehem, February 2, and, on March 27, 1752, the corner-stone 
was laid. On September 15 of the same year the finished building was opened 
as an inn, with John Frederick Schaub and Divert Mary, his wife, as the first of 
the succession of inn-keepers. August 6, 1754, it first displayed its sign with the 
emblem of the rose. Like Friedensthal, it had a thrilling connection with the 
frontier horrors of 1755-56 The store was opened, 1763, in a near-by log house. In 1771 
the property was sold to private parties. In 1772 the inn was closed. The building dis- 
appeared in 1858. 
18 



258 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

cicerones and otherwise attend to the wants of visitors. A Httle 
later two rooms were fitted up in it to lodge guests. These various 
associations of the house, together with the public business trans- 
acted in the office of Justice Horsfield, the successor of Henry Antes, 
made it the principal rendezvous of strangers and people from the 
neighborhood. 

Another house, built in 1752, that deserves to be mentioned was the 
"Indianer Logis" (Indian lodge or inn), which stood near the west 
bank of the Monocacy, immediately north of the present stone bridge 
at the mill. It was a stone building of one story, fifty-two by forty 
feet in dimensions, erected as a temporar)' dwelling for the Indians 
of Friedenshuetten at the foot of the hill to the south, after it had 
been decided to transfer them to another spot. It was then to serve 
as the regular Indian tavern of the place, in which an Indian couple, 
or some white persons adapted to the task, were to have the over- 
sight and attend to the entertainment of Indian visitors. In the 
sequel, after all the Indians had removed from Bethlehem, it was 
fitted up to serve for a while as a lodging for travelers, when 
inclement weather or high water rendered it too difficult, or even 
dangerous, to cross the river to the Crown Inn at night ; and the 
first public house of Bethlehem had not yet been built. That 
'''Indian house" therefore shared, with the rooms over the store in 
the Horsfield house, the honor of being the first hotel on the north 
side at Bethlehem, of more pretensions — being built of stone — than 
the primitive guest-room of 1743, in one of the hastily-constructed 
log cabins. The first foundation-stone was laid, August 14, 1752, 
and on October 25, the house was ready to be occupied. On that 
day about twenty Indians moved in procession from Friedenshuetten 
to the new building and took formal possession, partaking together 
of a meal, with songs of praise.^'' In the summer of 1756 a log 
house, sixty-three by fifteen feet, was built just south of it, near the 
creek, containing a chapel for the Indians. This was taken down 
and transferred, in 1758, to the Indian village of Nain near Bethle- 
hem, to which reference will be made in another chapter. 

While these various building operations were in progress, time was 
found to also make numerous improvements which enhanced the 

15 The Rev. Wm. C. Reichel, in Memorinh of the Moravian Church., published in 1870, 
states, on page 23, that the spring which empties into tlie cveek near the bridge, on the north 
side, rose in the cellar of the Indian house, that the building was removed early in the cen- 
tury, and that portions of the tiling, with which it was paved, remained at the time of 
writing. 



1749 1755- 259 

attractive appearance of Bethlehem and the places on the Nazareth 
domain, and added comforts and conveniences. Many things in this 
line were quickly accomplished by systematically distributing num- 
bers of workmen, to undertake one task after another vigorously, and 
with the stimulus that comes from seeing the work move rapidly under 
many hands. Thus streets were gotten into condition, pavements were 
laid, open spaces about the buildings were made tidy, large rows of 
trees were planted along the borders, and gardens were beautified, by 
efforts that often seemed like mere holiday diversions. When it was 
concluded that the time had come to make the road from Bethlehem 
to Nazareth look more like the highway of an old, settled country than 
a. mere back-woods trail, barely passable for wagons, as the character 
of all the roads of the region then was, two large gangs of men and 
boys, one at the Bethlehem end and the other at the Nazareth end, 
were set to work simultaneously, the second week in May, 1750, to 
straighten, clear and level the road. One day's work, followed by 
another in the third week of the month, when they met with their 
respective sections finished, resulted in a thoroughfare so excellent 
by comparison with others in the surrounding country, that it occa- 
sioned special comment by visitors from a distance. 

Loyal, energetic and capable men were at hand to direct the exter- 
nal afifairs, so that the unsatisfactory conditions described in the pre- 
ceding pages did not seriously affect the situation in this respect dur- 
ing the time that elapsed before they were rectified. Knowledge of 
the crisis that came when Antes left Bethlehem soon reached head- 
quarters in Europe, and, without much delay, steps were taken to 
correct the mistake that had been made in sending Bishop John 
Nitschmann to Bethlehem to take Bishop Spangenberg's place, and 
in giving him the kind oi instructions he was carrying out. In the 
autumn of 1750, after important interviews between Zinzendorf and 
Spangenberg had taken place and the position of Antes had become 
known, Nathanael Seidel went to Europe — apparently in response to 
a letter from there — to report on matters and take the written state- 
ments which Nitschmann was pleased to send. He was accompanied 
by David Zeisberger who went as a messenger, more particularly 
in reference to Indian affairs. They sailed from New York on the 
Irene, the first week in September. ^^ 

16 She left the dock, August 28, and sailed out from Sandy Hook, September 3. They 
Tiad a very stormy passage. A captain who arrived at New York, October 5, from the north 
of Scotland reported that, September 25, he passed the Irene, after a gale of several days, 
with fore and top-mast and bowsprit gone, and sailing with a jury-mast rigged up; and that 



26o A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Before they returned or any action towards righting matters had 
been consummated, death entered official circles at Bethlehem and 
wrought changes independent of the plans of men. The wife of 
Bishop John Nitschmann^' was taken away on February 2.2, 1751. 
Bishop Cammerhofif who was then bedfast departed on April 28. In 
view of the importance attached to their respective offices at the 
time, their decease caused no little consternation at Bethlehem. 
Three days after the death of Cammerhofif, Samuel Powell, who 
arrived from Philadelphia, brought an affectionate greeting to the 
sufferer from Antes who had not heard of his release. When Powell 
returned he was specially commissioned to stop at Fredericktown 
and give Antes an account of his happy departure which had made a 
deep impression upon all. 

A kind of ad interim arrangement ensued. Bishop John Nitschmann 
confined himself mainly to purely pastoral ministrations. With 
Nathanael Seidel absent in Europe, the oversight of the large number 
of single men and the share in general administration otherwise taken 
by him devolved upon his able and zealous assistant Gottlieb Pezold. 

two vessels which had sailed with her, were putting back, too badly crippled to proceed. 
Captain Garrison reported " all right " to this captain. Her two companions, one a vessel 
belonging to Captain Badger, which got back to New York, and the other under Captain 
Goelet, which reached Boston, were reported in port by the New York newspapers in 
October. Letters from Europe desiring Cammerhofif to visit Nova Scotia and inspect the 
opening for evangelistic work and a settlement there, in response to invitations, reached 
Bethlehem when Captain Garrison was getting ready to sail. He was asked whether he 
could make a detour and go to Nova Scotia, but he stated that, for some reason not explained, 
he could not do so. Letters came again in April, 17S', urging the Nova Scotia project but 
Cammerhoif being then on his death-bed, nothing could be done in the matter. Therefore, 
Nova Scotia was never visited by the Irene. The Rev. L. T. Nyberg, mentioned in the 
previous chapter, accompanied Seidel and Zeisberger to Europe. 

17 She was born at Schoenau, Moravia, in 1712, fled to Herrnhut with her parents — her 
maiden name was Haberland — in 1 729, and was one of the seventeen young women and 
girls who joined in the covenant with Anna Nitschmann, May 4, 1730. In the phraseology 
propagated during the period of extravagance, she, as overseer or Eldress of the female 
membership in America, was given the title of " the mother," as Anna Nitschmann was 
called in the more general sense. As a special distinction, she was interred in what was 
then the center of the cemetery at Bethlehem, where a marble slab now marks her grave. 
One of her four sons, Immanuel Nitschmann, was later a leading musician of Bethlehem 
and, for many years, the secretary who made those copies of official records, which are so 
gratifying to all who use them, on account of the e.nse with which they are read. He ended 
his days at Bethlehem. His wife was Maria Van Vleck, daughter of Henry Van Vleck, 
merchant, and sister of Bishop Jacob Van Vleck. She, late in life, became the second wife 
of Joseph Jones, son of the founder of the Jones farm east of Bethlehem, and himself its 
occupant until his death in 1 824. 



1/49 1755- 26i 

Perhaps the most important man at Bethlehem during this time was 
the Rev. Frederick Emmanuel Herrmann, although his is not one 
of the more familiar names of that period. He appears to have 
been a man of uncommon executive ability and capacity for affairs. 
Besides fulfilling his duties as an influential member of the central 
executive board, and as a preacher of ability, he, for more than a 
3^ear, served as a general inspector of trades and industries, and 
did much to perfect system and order. With Brownfield, the faithful 
steward, until his death in April, 1752, and Okely, as men experienced 
in the business affairs of the Economy ; Timothy Horsfield as a new 
adviser, and the patriarch. Father Nitschmann, whose great personal 
influence was daily exerted in the interest of harmony and smooth- 
ness, all rallying together, things moved on without very serious 
disturbance. 

In the night of September 24, 1751, Captain Garrison suddenly 
brought the long-expected Irene into port at New York. Nathanael 
Seidel and David Zeisberger were on board, returning to Bethlehem. 
With them came two married couples and two single men who all 
rendered conspicuous service in their several spheres : John Michael 
and Gertrude Graff, Joachim and Elizabeth Busse, John Jacob 
Schmick and Hans Christian Christiansen.^^ 

Bishop John Nitschmann received intimation in letters brought by 
Seidel, of his recall to Europe, but this did not come formally until 
November 14. He immediately finished his preparations, took leave 
of Bethlehem three days later and went to New York where Captain 



18 Graff and Schmick were both ordained men and university graduates ; the first of Jena 
and the second of Koenigsberg. Busse was likewise an ordained man who had been serv- 
ing the Church in Berlin. He and his wife went to St. Thomas before the close of the year, 
as missionaries. Graff and his wife came to devote themselves especially to the work amoncr 
the children. They located at Nazareth in 1755. He became a bishop, 1772, and settled 
at Salem, N.C., where he died in 1774. Schmick entered the Indian mission service in 
■which he figured conspicuously amid the tribulations of a few years later. Christiansen was 
an eminently skilful mill-wright who rendered valuable service at Bethlehem and other 
places. Others who came with them were Adam Foelker, blacksmith and farmer from 
Wuertemberg, with his family ; Andrew Giering, journeyman shoemaker from near Suelz 
on the Neckar, Wuertemberg, who, on October 24, went to Maguntsche to work for Jacob 
Ehrenhardt ; a merchant named Schlosser from Pforzheim, Durlach, with two children 
attended by a maid named Schaemel, and Maria Barbara Meyer, who accompanied Foelker's 
family as a redemptioner. None of these people were members of the Moravian Church but 
some of them became such. The maid with Foelkers was released for £g by the single 
sisters at Bethlehem and taken into service in the Sisters' House. The girl Schaemel, upon 
application, was likewise so employed. Abraham Boemper's son was also a passenger. 



262 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Garrison was getting the Irene ready for her fiftli voyage. Those 
who were to accompany him to Europe were assembled there or 
went with him from Bethlehem.^^ On November 26, the vessel left 
the dock. After nearly drifting upon a reef in consequence of an 
almost instantaneous cessation of the wind, she lay to in a cove on 
the Staten Island shore, on account of a heavy storm that broke 
upon the coast, until December 4, when the Captain put out to sea. 
Moving down the narrows, they passed the ship that was bringing 
Bishop Spangenberg back to America to again take charge of the 
work. He, of course, recognized the Irene, but in consequence of 
the stormy weather, attempts to communicate with her by means 
of the speaking-trumpet failed. Bishop Matthew Hehl came with 
him as coadjutor, accompanied by his wife and a young woman, 
Henrietta Petermann, as attendant. Other Moravian passengers 
were Philip Christian Bader, Nicholas Henry Eberhardt, Matthew 
Kremser, Henry Miller the printer, who had again been in Europe, 
and Carl Godfrey Rundt. They reached Bethlehem, December 10. 
Spangenberg and Hehl went to Philadelphia on the 17th, to' pay 
their respects to the Governor. Returning to Bethehem, they stopped 
at Fredericktown to visit Henry Antes. Dr. Adolph Meyer accom- 
panied them from there, more than half way to the Lehigh. There 
was general rejoicing and a restored feeling of confidence at Beth- 
lehem. It had not been known with certainty, even by the principal 
officials, that Spangenberg would return, and his sudden appearance 
immediately after the departure of his predecessor, was a great 
surprise to every one. 

One of his first important acts was to convene a Synod at Beth- 
lehem on December 22, to communicate various necessary matters, 
both of principle and method, in the general work ; to get back into 
personal connection with all ministers immediately and to reach 
as many spots in the varied activities as possible with such new 
regulations as were to be introduced. From this time, all that was 
abnormal in the tone, language and manner of the preceding few 
years rapidly disappeared. 

19 The company consisted of John Nitschmann, J- C. Pyrlaeus and wife, John Philip 
Doerrbaum and wife, James Greening and wife, the widow of Cammerhoff, Henry Jorde, 
John Eric Westmann, Matthew Kuntz and Christian Fredericli Post, from among the persons 
who had come over from Europe as members of the Cliurch; also Ferdinand Fend (Vend), 
son of " Kiefer " Fend, of Germantown, and the boy James Noble. Samuel Fockel, of the 
colony brought over by Henry Jorde, intended to return to Europe with them, but at New 
York changed his mind and remained. 



1749 1755- 263 

At Betklehem, and in the affairs of the Economy throughout, 
broken ends had to be caught up and tangled threads unraveled. 
A situation now existed that required stronger external regulation, 
for the somewhat demoralizing effects of temporary variance between 
factions, and the presence of numerous elements that were not in 
sympathetic unity, made it less easy than in previous years, to main- 
tain the necessary order through mere spontaneous sentiment. An 
evidence of what appeared necessary in this direction was the 
decision, in February, 1752, to resuscitate the Richtcr Collegium, 
explained in the preceding chapter. John Bechtel, David Bishop, 
John Brownfield and Jasper Payne now constituted this board and 
were formally inducted by Spangenberg on February 16, with Herr- 
mann and Pezold as advisory members. The former name, Richter 
Collegium, had been subject to misconception, not only by the public 
but even by some within the congregation. It was spoken of now 
for a while as eine Commission — a Board of Commissioners — and 
finally, in 1754, to indicate more clearly to the English-speaking part 
of the public and to the civil authorities, what the nature of its 
functions was, it was given the English name — officially used — "Com- 
mittee for Outward Affairs." In this, one line of internal organi- 
zation may be traced from the beginning through to the final system 
that existed, as in all exclusive Moravian Church-settlements, on to 
the eventual abolition of this system at the middle of the nineteenth 
century, at Bethlehem — the Gemein-Richter, an individual office, the 
Richter-Collegium, the Commission, the Committee for Outward Affairs, 
and finally the Aufsehcr Collegium, or Board of Supervisors, which 
existed until 1851. The general executive board which at 
different times bore various names, was not only the ultimate 
local authority, but the board in central control of the whole 
Economy, or co-operative union, and likewise superintended the 
entire work in America. It was not until after the dissolution of 
the Economy that this general executive authority began to be 
differentiated from the central, local authority, and the latter came 
to be embodied in a board of purely local executive control and 
spiritual oversight ; and various functions distributed among a 
group of organized bodies of somewhat nebulous appearance, when 
superficially viewed, were concentrated in a smaller number of more 
clearly defined boards under a simplified arrangement.-" 

'° As a sample of this elaborate and intricate organization, the following array of official 
bodies, some executive, others merely deliberative, that existed in 1752 may be mentioned: 
Juenger Col/egium (the highest central authority), Richter Collegium (elucidated above). 



264 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

It was a happy turn in season when the exotic administration and 
whimsical ideas that prevailed at Bethlehem from 1749 to 1751 were 
succeeded by the influence of men and measures less distinct from 
their surroundings ; for developments were taking place which left 
Bethlehem no longer an almost isolated settlement, having no other 
connection with outside movements and public affairs than that which 
lay in its general relations to the government of the Province and to 
the distant Court of Bucks County at Newtown. The foundations of 
a neighboring town had been laid "at the point" in the Forks of the 
Delaware, where the plans of the Proprietors for opening up new 
bodies of land yet lying unoccupied in the upper part of the extensive 
territory included in Bucks County ; the restive desire of the Scotch- 
Irish people in the Forks to cut loose from the incompatible Quaker 
element dominant, with its German support, in the old county, and 
to have a seat of justice nearer home; and the political calculations 
of various parties, with the growing German population of the region 
to be catered to or manoeuvred against as the case might be, would 
all have a center at which they might be promoted. The importance 

Oeconomische Cmfsrenz (conferring on general management), Diaconafs Conferenz (more 
strictly financial), Kinder Conferenz (department of children and schools), Chor Conferenzen 
(on special affairs of the several choir divisions and houses), Diener Conferenz (on various 
branches of service and attendance — sacristan's corps, culinary department, attention to 
visitors, strangers, etc.), Kranken- Waerter Conferenz (conferences of nurses, male and 
female), Hand-verker Conferenz (heads of handicrafts), Ackerbaii Conferenz (relating to the 
agricultural department). Heifer Conferenz (advisory to central management giving some 
opportunity for the representative feature in control), Geinein Rath (more fully representative 
in deliberation — vox populi), Polizei Tag (general town-meeting to statedly hear exposition 
of principles and regulations that concerned all, to disseminate general information on public 
affairs, to preserve order and correct irregularities and periodically tone up the common 
morale). The name Juenger Collegium applied to the central authority, being a unique 
term, requires some elucidation, fuenger, the well-known equivalent of Disciple in the 
German Bible, gave Zinzendorf one of his favorite conceptions of religious life and activity 
expressed by fuengerschaft (discipleship). It came into use in connection with the general 
directing body in Europe, which received the name fuenger Haus, literally Disciple House 
(corps or conference of Disciples directing the whole). The word was then attached also 
to the quarters occupied by this body. This fanciful term was made to imply unwarrantable 
spiritual prerogatives and exaggerated dignities during the abnormal period that has been 
described ; but these were set aside, even though the name remained for a wliile, after the 
close of John Nitschmann's administration at Bethlehem. Spangenberg did not permit 
himself to be called Juenger, although at the head. Later, after all this official terminology 
ceased, this name was exclusively applied — unofficially and harmlessly — to Zinzendorf, 
merely in the sense of one who lived in very close spiritual communion with his Saviour, 
cherishing the disposition of a John, the beloved disciple. After his death he was spoken 
of in reverent affection as " der selige fuenger,^' — the sainted disciple. 



1749 1755- 265 

of the Moravian settlements was dul)^ considered in all of these 
designs, from various standpoints, by men of widely different atti- 
tude towards them. William Parsons, the former Surveyor General 
of Pennsylvania, who took the leading part in founding the new 
town, being spoken of now as "the Father of Easton;" who repre- 
sented the Proprietary interests and filled various important offices 
at this new center during the first years, was disposed to be anti- 
German in general, as well as anti-Moravian in particular.-^ This 
was very acceptable to those men of the region who had looked 
askance at Bethlehem from the first and now, in forming their plans, 
proposed to have the importance of the Moravians consist mainly 
in their usefulness as tax-payers. It was desirable, therefore, that 

21 Mr. Parsons, with all his abilities and his energetic services in the early years of Easton 
which deserved better than that even his grave should be left neglected in after years, and 
for a time entirely lost sight of, was a man of perverse disposition, in some respects, that 
marred his relations to people in many directions without real occasion. Apart from the 
anti-German position which he thought the Proprietary interests he represented demanded 
of him, intensified by his irritation at being out-voted several times in the new county, his 
grudge against that nationality, and his prejudice against the Moravian settlements in the 
Forks — a prejudice which he tried to impart to Proprietor Penn — had, back of all this, a 
personal reason, which is not commonly known. His wife was a German woman, Johanna 
Christiana Zeidig, a niece of the brothers John Henry and Christian Ludwig Sprogel, well 
known to students of Pennsylvania history. Her almost morbidly emotional and pensive 
piety,with which he had neither sympathy nor patience, and which he tried to dispel by alternate 
ridicule and harshness, led to estrangement between them. When she joined the Moravian 
Church in Philadelphia, he deserted her and took with him to Lancaster County and finally 
to Easton, his two youngest daughters, Johanna Grace, later married to Nicholas Garrison, 
Jr., son of Captain Garrison, and Juliana Sarah, who became the second wife of Timothy 
Horsfield, Jr., son of Justice Horsfield, of Bethlehem. Both of them, as well as an older 
daughter, Ann Mary, familiarly known as Molly Parsons, who was married to a Moravian 
minister, Jacob Rogers, and another daughter, Susan, who died single in Philadelphia, were 
all members of the Moravian Church. His son Robert, whom he threatened to disinherit 
for the same reason, and a married daughter, Hanna Warral, both died young in Philadel- 
phia, receiving the ministrations of the Church. A bitterness possessed him in consequence 
of all this that became almost a mania. It is not difficult, therefore, to understand why the 
Moravian settlements were represented by him in an unfavorable light in official correspon- 
dence. He never resumed relations to his wife, who continued to live in Philadelphia until 
after his death, when she removed to Bethlehem, where she died. When, after he had 
mellowed greatly in his feelings, long recovered from his prejudice against the Moravians, 
-come to cordial terms with them and embraced evangelical faith, his end drew near, he 
desired to have all his family gathered around him, but in that pathetic hour it was too late 
for his wife to come from Philadelphia. He died at Easton, December 17, 1757. A simple 
service was conducted in accordance with his request, by his son-in-law, the Rev. Jacob 
Rogers, at the funeral, December 19, which was attended by a number of Bethlehem people. 
Timothy Horsfield, Esq., was executor of his estate. 



266 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, 

well-informed men of understanding and tact as well as of integrity, 
patience and peaceable disposition ; men of ability and force, more- 
over, as well as of piety and enthusiasm, should be in control at 
Bethlehem. 

The first reference to the new town of Easton appears in the 
Bethlehem records, July 27, 1751 ; a little more than a year after the 
first survey was made there by Parsons and Nicholas Scull, his suc- 
cessor in the office of Surveyor General. On that date it is stated 
that Scull and Dr. Thomas Graeme, Proprietary Commissioner, came 
to Bethlehem "on their way to the Delaware to inspect the spot and 
neighborhood where the new town in Bucks County is to be built, to 
make a draft of the place, to be submitted to Proprietor Penn for 
his information and consideration." The next morning they pro- 
ceeded on their way to the spot, accompanied, at their request, by 
John Okely of Bethlehem. Parsons was not with them on this occa- 
sion. The first allusion to the erection of the new county occurs on 
March 11, 1752, when it is stated that Jasper Payne and John Brown- 
field, of Bethlehem, while visiting their old neighbor Solomon Jen- 
nings, were told by him that this new county "to which Bethlehem 
would belong" was now to be formed and that the proposed Trustees 
(to purchase land and erect buildings for a county-seat at Easton) 
were Thomas Armstrong, Thomas Craig, John Jones, James Martin 
and Hugh Wilson. ^° The first Court of the new county was held at 
Easton, June 16, (old style) 1752, and is referred to in the Bethlehem 
diary on the corresponding new style date, June 27. Timothy 
Horsfield, of Bethlehem, having, the previous daj^, received his com- 
mission as a Justice of the Peace, by the hand of William Parsons, 
participated in that first session. The other justices were Thomas 
Craig, William Craig, James Martin and Hugh Wilson. 

The opening of the new county-seat led to the first recorded visit 
to Bethlehem by a Governor of Pennsylvania. On July 13, 1752, 
Governor Hamilton and his staff passed through to Easton, one of 

22 At this time — new-style date — the final discussions were being concluded in the Assem- 
bly. The petition, after several years of agitation, was formally presented, May II, 1751, 
by William Craig. The act was passed, March 6, and signed by the Governor March II, 
O. S., 1752. The territory included in the present Northampton, Lehigh, Carbon, Monroe, 
Pike, and, in part, Wayne and Susquehanna Counties and beyond to the then uncertain 
limits of the Province was the portion of Bucks County, thus originally cut off into 
Northampton County. The new county was called Northampton and the new town Easton, 
by direction of Proprietor Thomas Penn, after Northampton, England, the seat of his father- 
in-law Lord Porafret, in that shire. 




TIMOTHY HORSFIELD (1st) JOHN VALENTINE HAIDT 

NICHOLAS GARRISON 
JOSEPH OERTER BERNHARD ADAM GRUBE 



1749 '755- 267 

the company intimating that his excellency would be glad to make 
a stop at Bethlehem if a regular invitation were given. Justice 
Horsfield and James Burnside, candidate for the Assembly, hastened 
to Easton to fulfill the formalities of the case, and word was quickly 
sent to Bishop Spangenberg, who was at Nazareth. The middle of 
the afternoon, the distinguished visitors were again in Bethlehem. 
The Governor alighted at Horsfield's; was then escorted about the 
place ; through the buildings ; to the terrace on the roof of the Breth- 
ren's House, where he enjoyed a view of the place and its surround- 
ings; into the new church, where the best music Bethlehem could 
produce was discoursed on the organ and on wind and stringed 
instruments ; and finally into the old chapel of the Community House, 
where the best that the larder and cellar afforded was served ; the 
luncheon being accompanied by the dulcet tones of an improvised 
orchestra — harp, violins and other instruments. While this was in 
progress, Spangenberg returned from Nazareth to do the closing 
honors. The Governor was greatly pleased with this reception, with 
the thrift and industry manifest on every side and the beautiful 
appearance of the place. He said that he had not only found all the 
favorable descriptions of Bethlehem true, but found more that was 
pleasing than he expected. After a stay of two hours, the party 
again mounted their horses and rode away. 

An incident of that first county court-day, bearing upon relations 
between Bethlehem and Easton, deserves mention in this connection, 
together with its outcome. Two of the Bethlehem officials, Nathanael 
Seidel and Andrew Anthony Lawatsch — a new man who had arrived 
from Europe in May — went to Easton on that day to take 
up two town lots with a view to securing, betimes, a site for a build- 
ing and a possible official establishment at the county-seat. It is 
stated that they were the first to secure the lots they selected, there 
being a lively scramble. These lots were on Ferry Street. On one 
of them a building was erected in 1761, which was to be occupied 
by an organization of single men, and to serve as a preaching-place. 
On this account it was spoken of later as a Brethren's House. -^ It 

=3 The reasons for abandoning that foot-hold at the county seat are not clear. Captain 
F.Ellis — History of Northampton County, \%TI — erroneously notes this house as built 
"probably at least as early as 1745," and ascribes the withdrawal of the Moravians to their 
"strong desire to avoid contact with other communities and peoples," when it was con- 
cluded to establish the county seat where they had built that house. Deeds for the lot were 
executed in 1757, and the lines re-established, July 23, 1760. The foundation was slaked 
off, October 8, following. The building was commenced in the spring of 1761, under the 



268 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

was sold by the Bethlehem authorities in 1763. They owned the 
other Easton lot, a "water lot," until 1793. The first election held 
in the new county, October i, 1752, which tested the relative 
strength of the several parties which had formerly competed in Bucks 
County, resulted in the election of James Burnside as first assembly- 
man ; he being a Moravian, living near Bethlehem and representing 
the elements which Mr. Parsons, the opposition-candidate, spoke of 
as the Quaker party drawing the Germans and at variance with the 
proprietary interests he assumed to stand for. According to published 
statistics, Bethlehem Township, at that time, embraced about 600 
of the new county's population of about 5900. The Moravian 
population at the close of 1752 was 578. 

During the time when these developments were taking shape, 
some movements of importance afifecting the material interests 
centering at Bethlehem were quietly in progress, in anticipation of 
new conditions which would make it desirable to have the properties 



oversight of Gottlieb Pezold, according to plans by Andrew Hoeger, the Bethlehem architect; 
timber and boards having been floated down the Lehigh. No Moravian organization was 
formed there. At the solicitation of Jost VoUert, formerly living south of the Lehigh at 
Bethlehem, and at this time in Easton — he helped to work at the house — Moravian preach- 
ing was frequently held from October 30, 1759, on through 1760, in the undenominational 
log school- and meeting-house, built by Mr. Parsons in 1755 on what was then Poraphret 
Street, with aid from the '' German Society "; and after the new stone house was completed, 
it was continued there occasionally until the property was sold, in 1763, to John David 
Boehringer, formerly of Bethlehem, who appears to have established the first tannery at 
Easton. Boehringer bought it for the Lutheran congregation, the price being ^^400 — so says 
Matthew Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley, who states that the second floor was used as 
a place of worship, and the lower rooms as a parsonage. Mr. Henry (1S60) says the house 
was at the time of writing " part of the Washington Hotel." Daniel Rupp, in his History 
of Northampton County, says "it is now (1845) a part of Mr. John Bachman's hotel." 
Col. Ellis says (1877), "it stood on the site, at present occupied by the new brick and iron 
block on the west side of Third Street and cornering on the alley next below Ferry Street." 
The Rev. W. C. Reichel — Crown Inn, (1872) — ^quotes (p. 41) description of its site as "on 
a lot bounded east by Pomphret Street, south by lot No. 120, west by a twenty-foot alley, 
and north by Ferry Street." Frederick Schaus, referred to by Mr. Reichel as doing the 
mason work — he learned his trade in Bethlehem, in part — was the son of John Adam 
Schaus, associated with the first ferry and grist-mill at Bethlehem, and with the first tavern 
south of the Lehigh, who later for a while lived in the neighborhood of Hoeth's farm beyond 
the Blue mountains, which at one time bore the name Friedensthal ; who then found his 
way to the new county seat, where the family name again became associated with the 
entertainment of travelers, Frederick keeping tavern for a season. So much in connection 
with the first Moravian property, members and ex-members at Easton, for the local anti- 
quary of the future. 



1/49 1755- 269 

that had been acquired, secured in a satisfactory manner. Purchases 
had originally been made by individuals acting for the Brethren, and 
were held by such individuals in their own name ; there being no 
legal corporation. After April, 1746, the 500 acres on which Beth- 
lehem was built, the large island in the river and some other lands 
had been held by three Joint Tenants, Spangenberg, Antes and 
David Nitschmann, Sr., to whom they had been conveyed through 
John Okely, Notary and Conveyancer ; he having acquired them 
through deed (1745) from Antes the original purchaser, and given 
a declaration of trust. Upon consultation, when Antes removed 
from Bethlehem, it was concluded, for various important reasons, 
to change this and concentrate these holdings in the hands of one 
man as individual Proprietor. Father Nitschmann, one of the 
Joint Tenants, was selected and, the first week in October, 1750, 
he went to Philadelphia and took out naturalization papers, to qualify 
him to be a free-holder. November 21, O. S., 1751, Spangenberg 
and Antes, the other two Tenants, conveyed their nominal shares to 
him. Thus a system was introduced, in the holding of title to the 
lands of the Church, that was maintained for more than a hundred 
years. With this succession of Proprietors were eventually associ- 
ated Administrators to whom the Proprietors gave the necessary 
authority to transact business in connection with the real estate. 
Sometimes, as in the case of the last of the succession, the Proprietor 
and Administrator were the same. In connection with the beginning 
of the process, it may be added that in 1757, David Nitschmann 
executed a will and constituted Bishops Spangenberg and Boehler 
Executors to sell the properties for his heirs legally inheriting it. 
After Father Nitschmann's death, in 1758, they made such sale to 
Nathanael Seidel, who became the next Proprietor, assuming all debts 
in lieu of purchase money. Thus, at the period now treated of, all 
the real estate acquired and controlled by the authorities at Beth- 
lehem, in addition to the Barony of Nazareth, the purchase of which 
took place in a different manner at the start, was held by the first 
such Proprietor. The debts figuring in the transaction with Seidel 
were the incumbrances resting upon the estate in consequence of 
purchases on credit with security. In this a connection existed with 
the financial management in Europe, which now brought a new strain 
upon affairs of a very different kind from that described in the fore- 
going pages. That central financial management of the whole, called 
the General Diaconate, endeavoring to carry all the heavy burdens 



2/0 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the work in all countries with inadequate resources — the income 
from Zinzendorf's estates, loans by mortgage on some of them, 
occasional gifts by wealthy friends supplemented by the revenue 
derived from the several missionary societies organized — had become 
deeply involved and seriously embarrassed. The immense losses 
suffered through the disastrous end of the Herrnhaag settlement, 
lavish and reckless expenditures by those in charge during the period 
of folly just past, precarious shifts to meet pressing obligations and 
tide over emergencies, and over-confident manufacturing and com- 
mercial ventures in England, in the hope of largely increasing revenue 
— much of this concealed from Zinzendorf, who proceeded without 
comprehending the real condition of things — brought a crisis in the 
early part of 1753, when a Jewish banker, with whom the General 
Diaconate had large monetary transactions, suspended payment and 
a panic ensued among their creditors. In this crisis, which fully 
opened Zinzendorf's eyes to the condition of things and came near 
bringing financial ruin, he unhesitatingly stepped into the breach 
personally with all his property and credit. Some who could be of 
similar service stood by him. 

In spite of the advantage taken of this crisis by hostile parties 
who proposed to now ruin everything, the Brethren were enabled to 
adjust matters and prevent a complete crash. The claims of some 
obdurate creditors — among them a woman who held a lien against 
the Barony of Nazareth and was inspired to press relentlessly, by 
the Rev. George Whitefield, who just at this time excitedly joined 
the pasquil-mongers and printed his most vigorous attack upon 
Zinzendorf and the Brethren — were purchased by other creditors who 
agreed to make terms and give the financial managers time to settle. 
Then the whole system of things was re-organized and put into 
competent hands. The debts of all kinds that finally accumulated, 
amounted in the aggregate to far beyond a million of dollars. Half 
a century was required to completely extinguish this great sum. 

In March, 1753 — just at the time when the crisis came — Bishop 
Spangenberg prepared for another journey back to Europe to 
help plan measures to meet the cjitical situation, of which 
he was fully aware, and in anticipation of which, the steps 
before described to get the real estate at Bethlehem into satis- 
factory order were taken. He also wished to report and consult 
on two important matters, of 1752 which have not yet been referred 
to, as well as on numerous details of the general work that could 



1749 1755- 271 

better be treated through personal interviews than through corre- 
spondence. One of these matters was the survey of the immense 
tract of land in North Carolina secured from the Earl of Granville, 
which received the name Wachovia (die Wachau) from one of the 
Zinzendorfian estates ; and on which the Moravian settlements in that 
State were founded. August 25, 1752, Spangenberg had started 
from Bethlehem for North Carolina with his selected company to 
undertake the survey. Count Reuss XXVIII, commonly spoken of 
as Ignatius, a nephew of the Countess Zinzendorf, had been expected 
in America in connection with this expedition, but plans were changed 
and he did not come. Spangenberg was accompanied from Beth- 
lehem by Timothy Horsfield, Herman Loesch, John Merck and 
Joseph Mueller. At Fredericktown they were joined by Henry Antes, 
although he had just arisen from a sick-bed, and together they 
proceeded on their way, making most of the journey on horseback. 
It required until after New Year to complete their formidable task, 
in the course of which much sickness, privation and hardship were 
experienced. 

Spangenberg got back to Bethlehem, February 12, 1753. 
The other matter alluded to was the suspended project of 
building the villages of Gnadenhoeh and Gnadenstadt on the 
Nazareth domain, as residence-places for families, different from the 
kind of institutional arrangement existing at Bethlehem, Nazareth, 
Gnadenthal, Christiansbrunn and Friedensthal ; completing thus the 
original scheme of six centers on the Nazareth land on a more 
elaborate scale than was at first proposed. The start made with 
founding these villages has been referred to. When Spangenberg 
returned from North Carolina he not only observed that the zeal for 
these undertakings had waned somewhat, but prudently concluded, 
in the light of the latest correspondence from Europe, that the 
financial outlook did not warrant any headlong movements. During 
March, 1753, there were numerous official consultations on these 
things and on affairs arising ottt of the new county organization. 
Antes was in Bethlehem at these meetings, March 16-24, and helped 
to form further plans for securing the Church property against any 
sudden adverse turn; to sketch a scheme for occupying the North 
Carolina land ; and to frame a petition to the Assembly for relief 
from what was felt to be an oppressive principle of taxation applied 
to the Econom}', but which the County Commissioners declined to 
relax, because thev held that technical constraint bound them. 



2/2 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Successive representations to the Court of Appeals were unavailing 
and in pursuance of legal counsel, the assessments were paid under 
protest and an appeal finally taken to the Assembly.-'' 

Several church councils were held at which all of the communicant 
members were assembled to hear what it was deemed expedient to 
publish at that time about all of these precarious matters ; to also 
hear the ad interim management arranged for the time of Spangen- 
berg's absence, the suspension of plans on the Nazareth land, and 
the measures urged to be able to proceed on a self-sustaining basis 
as nearly as possible. Spangenberg then went to New York, on 
March 26, preparatory to sailing for Europe. The Irene was lying 
at New York where Captain Garrison was getting her ready for 
the seventh voyage. -' 

24 Their main contention was in reference to the taxes assessed on the large number of 
single men individually. It was claimed that they should not be taxed personally, on the 
basis of the valuation put on the properties of their establishments and the magnitude of 
the agricultural and manufacturing operations in which they were jointly engaged, because 
they were not part owners, enjoyed no share of any profits, received no wages, but merely 
got their subsistence from the common store, giving all their labor to a common cause, 
which was not for the material aggrandizement of any individual or body of individuals, 
but for benevolent and charitable objects in the furtherance of evangelistic work. It was 
argued that they should be taxed jointly as large families in their several houses. This was 
met by the opponents in two ways. Some flatly refused to believe these statements. This, 
of course, was no argument, and was not to be reasoned with. Others took the position, 
that, if such was the case, the organization for which they labored was under obligation to 
pay the individual taxes for them as a part of the body of current expenses necessarily in- 
volved ; and that the law had nothing to do with the question of what was done with the 
proceeds. The position taken by the courts seems to have been that the plea made in 
behalf of the single men could only be admitted if they stood on the basis of indentured 
" servants," like "redemptioners"; and this was not the case. This question continued to 
be agitated for some years. Their contention had been admitted by the court of Bucks 
County, and they had been thus taxed as family establishments. It is on record that the 
amount of such tax collected from the single Brethren in April, 1753, was £73, while the taxes 
of the whole County, with its population of over 6000, was slightly more than ..^300. So 
the new county managed to make the Moravian settlements rather profitable, while Parsons 
was declaring them " detrimental to its prosperity." 

=5 Two companies had arrived from Europe on the Imni' since Spangenberg's return to 
America, December, 1751. Returning from her fifth voyage, May 17, 1752, she brought,, 
besides the Rev. Andrew Anthony La watsch, with his wife Anna Maria; the Rev. Jacob 
Rogers, a widower; Francis Boehler, later ordained, and his wife Anna Catherine; Rosina 
Pfahl, a widow, and Margaret Wernhamer, a single woman. They were accompanied by 
the faithful and valuable steward, David Wahnert, who was now a widower. After another 
voyage on the Irene^ July 6 to November 20, 1752, he was married at Bethlehem, January 
29, I753i to Rosina Pfahl, who then accompanied him on the next voyage in April, 1753- 



1749 1755- 273 

Spangenberg had hoped to have some leisure, after getting away 
from Bethlehem, to dispose of a mass of important writing before 
the ship sailed, that he had no time for during the preceding 
extremely busy weeks, and was much disconcerted when he found 
everything in readiness to leave. Just then a letter came to him 
from Zinzendorf intimating that, as matters then were, he might 
delay until after Easter if he preferred. So he let the Irene sail'-'^ 
without him and, while the people at Bethlehem supposed he was on 
the ocean, he retired to a house in the vicinity of New York, where 
he quietly finished his voluminous report on the North Carolina 
plans, and other writing, and did much thinking on affairs, that had 
not been possible in the whirl of the previous weeks. On April 20, 
he preached the Good Friday sermon in New York and directly after 
the service hurried aboard the ship on which he had engaged passage. 

After his departure, yet other important conferences on the 
financial situation were held by Bishop Matthew Hehl, who now 
took his place; Nathanael Seidel, Herrmann and Lawatsch, the 
temporary Board of Wardens ; Nicholas Henry Eberhardt who had 
come over in December, 1751, and now temporarily took Pezold's 
place as Warden of the single men; Antes, Horsfield and Okely; 
these being principally the men who had to worry with the uncertain 
problems of the hour. One such session. May 25 to 28 — during which 

When the vessel returned to New York from her sixth voyage, November 20, 1752, she had 
on board John Toeltschig, who had been one of the early Georgia colonists, and Anna 
Johanna Piesch, daughter of John George Piesch, the conductor of the First Sea Congre- 
gation, grand-daughter of Father Nitchmann and later the wife of Nathanael Seidel. She 
had charge of seventeen single women. Johanna Dorothea Miller, wife of the printer 
Henry Miller, and a certain widow Schultz, were also passengers, and, as stated, David 
Wahnert was again along as steward. The single women were the following: 
Beyer, Anna Maria, Klingelstein, Margaret Catharine, Ruch, Catherine, 

Dietz, INIaria Catherine, Mann. Anna, Schuster, Felicitas, 

Ebermeyer, Maria Margaret, Meyer, Maria Agnes, Seidner, Margaret Barbara, 

Gaui:)p, Dorothea, Morhardt. Christina, Sperbach, Johanna Rebecca, 

Gerhardt, Catherine, Neumann, Regina, Waeckler, Juliana. 

Heyd, Inger, Redelerburg, Helena, 

=6 The company that sailed in the Irene were John Toeltschig and Anna Johanna Piesch, 
returning ; Samuel Krause and wife, now also leaving Pennsylvania ; David Wahnert, the 
steward and his wife ; Judith, widow of the missionary Abraham Meinnung ; Gottlieb Pezold, 
who was to bring a large colony of single men to Pennsylvania ; Dorothea Bechtel, a 
daughter of John Bechtel; Bally Noble, a girl, and the young men Jacob Adolph and 
William Okely, the latter a sailor and ship's-carpenter who was with' the crew of the Irene 
on several voyages. 
19 



274 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

time Antes remained in Bethlehem — was occasioned by the receipt 
of a letter from Bishop John de Watteville in reference to the 
extensive credit-system that had been carried on and now rendered 
the crisis the more critical; stating what steps had thus far been 
taken, and expressing concern about the credit in Pennsylvania, 
where the difHculties in Europe had become known and a panic was 
imminent. After mature deliberation, all the communicant members 
at Bethlehem were summoned and were told how matters stood, 
de Watteville's letter was read to them, and they were called upon 
to manifest united loyalty. At the conclusion of the conference, 
Antes and Lawatsch started for Philadelphia, followed later by Father 
Nitschmann, Joseph Mueller, Hermann, Horsfield and Okely, to 
have interviews with the men who had made loans in this country, to 
explain the entire situation, so far as they could at that time, and 
correct erroneous and exaggerated reports that had gotten afloat, 
when the news of the failure of Gomez Serra, the banker, and the 
connection of the General Diaconate of the Church with him first 
reached Philadelphia. They succeeded in allaying the excitement and 
the creditors had sufficient confidence to wait. At another such 
conference in June, yet fuller explanations were made to the people 
at Bethlehem, and it was decided to give every one an opportunity 
to express his views and wishes on the question of standing by the 
Economy, and continuing to serve on the basis hitherto maintained. 
They were reminded that, while they were important producers for 
the general cause, their transportation and keeping had occasioned 
a considerable part of the great debt that had accumulated. They 
were asked to devote themselves anew to the task of helping to bear 
the common burden, and to be ready for yet more plain and frugal 
living for a season. 

In addition to these trying financial circumstances, the outlook for 
the harvest of that year was by no means promising. In that, and the 
two following years there was a very general failure of crops 
throughout Pennsylvania, succeeding several years of plenty. The 
spirit manifested by the people generally, in response to this appeal, 
was highly gratifjdng, and when the intimation was given that if any 
preferred to sever their connection with the Economy under this test, 
they should feel at liberty to do so and might go in peace, no disposi- 
tion to withdraw was apparent. The sensations set afloat by these 
circumstances attracted new attention to Bethlehem in business 
circles and among civil officers, not only in Pennsylvania, but also in 



1749 I75S- 275 

New Jersey and New York. Many men of prominence visited tlie 
place during the summer of 1753, either to inspect the situation and 
talk with the officials in order to form a better judgment about matters 
from a business point of view, or to merely gratify awakened curiosity. 
Among other visitors noted in June, was "Mr. John Penn, the son 
of Richard Penn, one of the Proprietors, with two gentlemen who 
looked about Bethlehem with pleasure." In September, besides 
many others referred to, were "a number of gentlemen from Phila- 
delphia, among them the Director of the Academy, Mr. Allison, and 
two of his colleagues." Merchants from New York and Philadelphia 
and a number of sea captains were among the visitors. In June, 
1753, three weeks after Bishop Spangenberg reached England, 
Bishop Peter Boehler sailed, with his wife, for America on the Irene 
to take Spangenberg's place until the end of the year, and oversee 
the further work of settlement with creditors in Pennsylvania, in 
harmony with the policy and method which had been instituted in 
England. Boehler was not only fully acquainted with the plans of 
the hour and possessed of more than ordinary ability in such matters, 
but had been one of those who deplored the heedless methods of the 
preceding few years and raised his voice against various measures 
and ventures, to the displeasure of those who were running things 
down the road to ruin. He landed at New York, September 9. They 
were accompanied by two married couples, Jacob and Elizabeth Till, 
and George Stephen Wolson and his wife Susan Rebecca, with David 
Wahnert, the steward, and his wife, again in attendance. Besides 
these, there came, under the leadership of Gottlob Koenigsdoerfer, a 
colony of twenty-three single men, to engage in the service of the 
Church in various ways. It was, on the whole, a body of superior men. 
Nine of them had studied at universities, and some others were men 
of considerable education. They added eight men to the educated 
ministry, while several more of good natural abilities joined the 
ranks of the assistant missionaries. There were also a surgeon, a 
surveyor and an experienced scrivener among them, while nine other 
trades were represented.-^ 

Bishop Boehler reached Bethlehem, September 13, and, after 
protracted consultations with Antes, Horsfield, Okely and others, 

27 Jacob and Elizabeth Till also entered the ministry, engaging at first, with great zeal and 
faithfulness, in the work among the children. The university men later best known in the 
ministry among those in the list which follows, were Friis, Krogstrup, Rusmeyer and Soelle. 
The surgeon was Kalberlahn, who later went to Norlh Carolina, and the surveyor was 



276 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

applied himself to the difficult task before him. The formal com- 
mission and guarantees he brought with him, the detailed statements 
he was able to make, together with his own personal standing in 
Philadelphia, eventually restored confidence and enabled him to so 
arrange matters with the creditors, who had agreed to wait only to 
the end of the year before foreclosing, that everything was gotten 
into order and the properties of the Church were secured. While 
engaged with these things, he also held a Synod in November, to 
deliberate on such matters as required the attention of all who were 
engaged in church work at that time. Furthermore, on October 8, 
the first colony of thirteen men — some from among those who 
arrived with Boehler — started for North Carolina to found a settle- 
ment on the new domain of Wachovia. 

At that time another project of some extent, which however was 
never consummated, began to engage attention at Bethlehem. Just 
before Spangenberg sailed for Europe, a proposition came to him 
by a company which owned about fifty thousand acres of land in New 
York, to give four thousand acres and sell seven thousand additional 
acres at a very low figure, to the Moravian Church to found a settle- 
ment. The land lay in Ulster County, a short distance east of the 
Delaware River between the Minnisinks and Schoharie. In May, 
after Spangenberg's departure, men were appointed to inspect the 
tract and send a report to Europe. This report was such that, not- 
withstanding the financial embarrassment of the time, it was con- 
cluded to investigate the proposition further. Boehler had been 
requested to give attention to it, but the early beginning of a severe 
winter prevented him from visiting the neighborhood. When Bishop 
David Nitschmann returned to America the following year, he was 
commissioned to take the matter in hand. May 2, 1754, he started 

Golkowsl<y, Krause was a butcher, and the first of the line of that name who have conducted 

the business at Bethlehem. The following is the complete list : 

Backhof, Ludolph Gottlieb, Juergensen, Jacob, 

Baehrmeyer, Christopher Henry, Kalberlahn, Hans Martin, 

Beyer, Frederick, Krause, Henry, 

Daehne, Ludwig Christopher, Krogstrup, Otto Christian, 

Eyerie, Jacob, Lemrnert, Joseph, 

Fabricius, George Christian, Rusmeyer, Albrecht Ludolf, 

Friis, Jacob, Soelle, George, 

Golkowsky, George Wenzeslaus, Toellner, Christian Frederick, 

Haberliind, Joseph, Wedsted, Chrisii.an, 

Herr, Jacob, Weicht, Peter, 

Hunt, Samuel, Worbass, Peter, 

Zietrler, Curtins Frederick. 



1749 I7S5- V7 

from Bethlehem with David Zeisberger for Ulster County to select 
a site for a settlement. On that day, thirty years before, he and 
the other "Moravian churchmen" had started from Zauchtenthal, the 
old Moravian home of the Nitschmanns and Zeisbergers, on the 
pilgrimage which led them to Herrnhut, and this suggested the idea 
of calling the new settlement Zauchtenthal. Further visits and 
negotiations with the owners followed and progressed so far that, 
at the end of November, what promised to be mutually satisfactory 
terms and forms of deeds for the land)iad been agreed to, and Bishop 
Nitschmann had arranged to take up his residence there and open 
the settlement, for which elaborate plans had been made. Then a 
closer inspection of the land revealed that the variety of uses tO' 
which it could be put was too limited to meet the stipulations, on 
the part of the owners, that had been accepted, and at last the scheme 
collapsed. A new individual ofifer of another tract in that region 
by Mr. Livingston, one of the company, was taken into consideration 
the next summer, but nothing came of it. 

A more promising opening was at that time being taken advantage 
of. This was the donation, by George Klein, of his entire farm at 
AVarwick, in Lancaster County, where a little congregation had 
existed since 1749. On that body of land, first offered in 1753, the 
important settlement of Lititz was founded under the superintendence 
of Bishop Matthew Hehl, who had been Bishop Spangenberg's 
coadjutor at Bethlehem. This settlement, which was planned to 
be more fully one of separate homes than Bethlehem and the 
Nazareth places had been, and at which no such arrangements as 
the Econom)^ of these places was ever instituted, not only diverted 
attention from the opening in Ulster County, New York, but took the 
place of the proposed villages of Gnadenhoeh and Gnadenstadt on 
the Nazareth land. 

Bishop Spangenberg got back to Bethlehetm, April 22, 1754; 
having arrived at New York on the Irene on the iStli. The record 
states that the return of "Brother Joseph"-^ to Pennsylvania caused 
great joy at Bethlehem. Besides a number of other persons. Bishop 
David Nitschmann accompanied him, after an absence of more than 

^8 This name by which Spangenberg was commonly known then and on to the end of his 
life— he often used it himself signing his name even officially ''Joseph, alias Augustus 
Gottlieb Spangenberg" — was a metonymy first applied to him by Zinzendorf, substituting the 
sacred Bible name for Augustus, which had radically the same meaning. In his provision 
for the sustenance of so many dependent upon his wise fore-thought and good management 
at Bethlehem, he was compared to Joseph, the provider in Egypt. 



278 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

four years, to pass the rest of his Hfe in America. Like Spangen- 
berg,-^ he was at this time a widower.^" 

There were others of note among the passengers : the Rev. John 
Ettwein, with his wife Joanetta Maria and his infant son Christian — 
the zealous superintendent of work among the children, the inde- 
fatigable itinerant, the commanding spirit at Bethlehem during the 
Revolution, and then the bishop of such extensive acquaintance and 
correspondence with public men ; the Rev. Francis Christian Lembke, 
a widower, the accomplished schoolman and preacher who became 
the pastoral head at Nazareth the next year; John Valentine Haidt, 
with his wife Catherine, less known as a minister than as a painter 
of pictures in oil, whose numerous scenes from the Saviour's passion 
and portraits of prominent Moravians remain, both in Europe and 
America, as mementos of those days — his studio was in the Horsfield 
house at Bethlehem for a season, and nearly all the oil portraits in 
the Church archives are his work ; Andrew Hoeger the architect and 
building-inspector who rendered important service at Bethlehem ; 
the Rev. Christian Thomas Benzien, with his wife Anna Maria and 
his two children Anna Benigna and Christian Lewis — worn and 
broken by the harassing ordeal of the financial crisis in England 
during which he had to bear a heavy load. The Rev. Paul Daniel 
Bryzelius, with his wife and three children, were also passengers. 
But the most interesting name in the company was that of Hecke- 
welder. The parents, David and Regina Heckewelder, subsequently 
joined the missionary force in the West Indies. Their children were 
John, David, Christian and Mary. The name of John Heckewelder, 
Indian missionary, linguist and archaeologist, founder of settlements, 
government agent and man of affairs, figures in the Bethlehem 



=9 Spangenberg was married again at Bethlehem, May 19, 1754. His second wife was a 
widow who had been engaged in official work among her sex in Europe, Mary Elizabeth 
Miksch, m.n. Jaehne. She was one of the passengers with him on the Irene. He later 
called her his " Martha," and she came to be known by this name so exclusively that it has 
often been taken by writers to have been her real name. She was an excellent woman and 
of great value to him as an assistant. Spangenberg left no issue by either marriage. 

30 Bishop Nitschmann's wife Rosina died at Marienborn, near Herrnhaag, August 10, 1753. 
Intending to locate m Ulster Co., N. Y., at the head of the projected settlement, Zauchten- 
thal, he married again, September 7, 1 754, at Bethlehem. His second wife was Mary 
Barbara Martin, m.n. Leinbach, widow of Frederick Martin, missionary bishop in the West 
Indies. They had a daughter, Anna Mary, who became the wife of Christian Heckewelder, 
brother of the celebrated missionary John Heckewelder, both of whom were among the boys 
of the company that arrived on the Irene in April, 1754. 



1749- 



-1755- 



279 



records until his death in 1823. As missionary and master of Indian 
languages and traditions, his name stands second, in the Moravian 
Church, only to that of David Zeisberger. Captain Garrison was 
accompanied by his wife on this voyage, and his son Nicholas 
Garrison, Jr., was again with the crew, who this time were exclusively 
Moravian sailors. Christian Jacobsen, later Captain of the Irene, was 
again along; also Andrew Schoute, one of the most useful and 
interesting men in this service ; William Edmonds who served as 
ship's cook, later inn-keeper, shop-keeper, county officer and Assem- 
blyman, and the Norwegian sailor, Jost Jensen, who later was inn- 
keeper at Bethlehem. Dr. John Michael Schmidt, subsequently 
apothecary at Lancaster and (1757) at Lititz, and three young 
women, with David Wahnert, the veteran steward and his wife were 
also on board. 

Returning from her ninth voyage, on November 16, the Irene 
brought Gottlieb Pezold back to America with the large colony of 
single men he had gone to bring over. He was accompanied by 
the missionary Christian Frederick Post, who had gone to Europe 
in 175 1, and the next year was with the unsuccessful missionary 
expedition to Labrador. A sturdy company of farmers and mechanics 
was now added to the membership, in the arrival of this colony. 
They represented no less than sixteen trades. One person of special 
interest was Samuel Johannes, the one Malabar convert of the Mora- 
vian Church from the Island of Ceylon, who was taken to Europe 
in 1742, was baptized at Marienborn and died at Bethlehem in 1763. 
Some of these young men were had in view for the new settlement 
in North Carolina and for that to be founded in Warwick Township, 
Lancaster County. ^^ 



3' The following is the list 
Anspach, Nicholas, 
Anst, Gottfried, 
Bagge, Lawrence, 
Bailey, Joseph (?), 
Bulitschek, Joseph, 
Coeln, Nicholas, 
Colckier, Jens, 
Cramer, Adam, 
Conrad, Melchior, 
Delfs, Detlef, 

Diemer, Franz Christopher, 
Dreyspring, Carl Joseph, 



of names for reference : 
Dust, Gottfried, 
Ernst, Jacob, 
Fischer, Caspar, 
Francke, August Henry, 
Friebele, Christian, 
Funck, Hans Nicholas, 
Giers, Joseph, 
Gruenewald, John Henry, 
Gimmele, Matthias, 
Hassfeldt, John Adam, 
Huepsch, Joseph, 
Jag, John, 



Johannes, Samuel, 
Klein, John, 
Kloetz, Christopher, 
KofHer, Adam. 
Kriegbaum, John George, 
Kuerschner, Christopher, 
Kunz, David, 
Lenzner, John Henry, 
Linstroem, Michael, 
Miksch, John Matthew, ■' 
Meisser, Henry George, 
Nielsen, Lawrence, 



280 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

I 

The course of events in Europe altered many previous plans and 
led to new ones in America also, some of which were carried out 
while others were not. Among the latter was no less a scheme than 
that which Count Zinzendorf, as clearly appears, entertained quite 
seriously for a while, when, after the storm of financial trouble lulled, 
and he was preparing to leave England where he had his residence 
for some time,- he thought of coming to Pennsylvania again and 
establishing himself here, a project alluded to in a previous chapter. 
This thought, which at one time took sufficiently definite shape that 
details were already being considered at Bethlehem, brought about 
an enterprise on the Nazareth land that did not remain merely on 
paper, like those two projected villages, but, even though Zinzendorf 
did not return to Pennsylvania, resulted in the erection of an imposing 
building which remains standing, the most conspicuous edifice in the 
vicinity and richest in historic associations. At the general meeting 
of the people in March, 1753, before Bishop Spangenberg started 
for Europe, when the suspension of operations in founding Gnad- 
enhoeh was spoken of, he intimated that the site had in view for it 
might be utilized for the ''Jucngerhaus"^" the building of which had 
been under consideration. The favorable location of the site "in 
the midst of the group of other places" was pointed out and the 
collection of some building material at the spot preparatory to the 
founding of the village, that might be made use of, was referred to. 
The outcome of the enterprise thus mooted may be here given. At 
another Church Council on November 18, 1754, Spangenberg stated 
that the "Disciple" — De?- Juenger, i. e. Zinzendorf — now needed a 
house to dwell in, with his little company, for things had come so 
far that he might be expected in Pennsylvania, and timely provision 
should be made. He added that a site between Bethlehem and Naz- 
areth was at one time had in view but could not be secured, ^^ and 
then another between Nazareth (Old Nazareth) and Gnadenthal had 
been proposed — the site eventvtally selected. 

Ollendorf, Carl, Schindler, George, Weinecke, Carl, 

Petersen, Hans, Sproh, Christian, Willy, Joseph, 

Ring, Philip Henry, Stiemer, Anton, Wittenberg, Jens, 

Rohleder, Martin, Stark, John George, Wuertele, John, 

Saxon, Samuel, Stettner, John, Zillnian, Henry. 

Schenk, Martin, Thorp, Edward, 

32 On this word see note 19, this chapter. 

33 The plan to secure a tract, on which it was thought for a while such a manor house 
might be built, between Bethlehem and Nazareth and the new county seat, on the proprietary 
manor of Termor — so named by Thomas Penn in honor of the maiden name of his wife, the 



1749 1755- 28i 

Spangenberg stated, furthermore, at that meeting, that Zinzendorf 
had been written to about this site between Nazareth and Gnaden- 
thal and was agreed that his house should be built there, provided 
that it did not bind him exclusively to Nazareth, in view of the special 
attention he desired to devote to certain features of the work at 
Bethlehem also. When it was suggested that if the enterprise were 
undertaken energetically and building material gotten together dur- 
ing the approaching winter, the erection of the house could easily 
be accomplished the next year, general willingness was cheerfully 
expressed. Alread)' on December 3, a site for the proposed manor 
house was selected at the place referred to. On the 8th, the btiilding 
committee was announced and the statement was made that this 
house would be planned to contain the central place of worship for 
the people on all parts of the Nazareth domain, in addition to the 
provisions for separate services b)^ the several colonies at their 
respective places ; such a common place of assembly having been one 
of the features had in view in planning the village of Gnadenhoeh. 
Zinzendorf changed his mind and, after he broke up his establishment 
in England and returned to the continent in March, 1755, concluded 
to retire to Herrnhut and remain there ; but with these plans and 
movements on the Barony that had been the property of his wife, 
the Countess Erdmuth Dorothea who, not long after this — June 19, 
1756 — departed this life at Herrnhut, the history of Nazareth Hall 



iady Juliana — was evidently thwarted by the opposition of William Parsons who strongly 
represented to Penn, the undesirability of permitting this tract or any part of the so-called 
" dry lands " falling into the hands of the Moravians, even though it was all for sale and 
hard to sell on account of the absurd supposition that it was worthless ; and, much as he dis- 
liked the '' Dutchmen" who were coming into the neighborhood to locate farms, the lesser 
prejudice gave way to the greater in his mind and he advocated selling it off to them in 
smaller parcels. The matter of the acquisition of land between Bethlehem and Nazareth to 
■complete a connection between the domains, had been under consideration from 1743. In 
that year Zinzendorf, who had also gotten the current bad opinion of the '' dry lands," writing 
in a letter about the practice of granting proprietary lands gratuitously for opening highways 
and about applying to Thomas Penn for a strip of this land for such purpose, observes that 
even if a strip of this '' barren and worthless " land a mile in width were given for a road, it 
would be of little consequence to the Proprietary. This remark gave rise to the absurd 
statement which has been put into print as history, that Zinzendorf projected a road a mile 
wide, from Bethlehem to Nazareth At a later time, patents held by the authorities at Beth- 
lehem, to certain parcels in this neighborhood, led to disagreeable complications with their 
conveyancer, John Okely, when he used his position to further his private plans to the 
detriment of the common interest. It led to litigation and Okely's removal from Bethlehem 
and severance of all connection with the Church, in 17S8. 



282 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

begins — this name being applied to the intended Zinzendorfian manor 
house the first time in the records on October 25, 1756. 

A company of single men went up to Christiansbrunn, December 
17, 1754, and, joined by a number of those who lived there, began to 
quarry stone and fell timber for the building. Ground was broken 
for the foundation on April i, and, May 3, 1755, the corner-stone was 
laid with elaborate services, attended by all the people of Bethlehem 
and the Nazareth places who could be present. A lengthy document 
in Latin prepared by the learned Nazareth minister, the Rev. Francis 
Christian Lembke, was deposited in the stone, with various other 
manuscripts, the principal of which were the following: an ode by 
Bishop Matthew Hehl which embodied the names of all the Moravian 
congregations, missions and preaching-places in America; hymns 
composed for the occasion — some of them sung — by Lembke, by John 
Michael Graff and John Ettwein who represented the department of 
work among the children, and by George Neisser, Christian Frederick 
Oerter and Anna Maria Beyer ; verses composed in Indian languages 
by inissionaries representing this field of activit}' — by Bernhard Adam 
Grube, in the Delaware tongue, and by John Jacob Schmick and 
George Christian Fabricius, a student of Indian language at Gnaden- 
huetten, in Mohican. The copies deposited in the stone had inter- 
linear translations. Besides all this, there was a catalogue of 1034 
persons, who on that date were counted as connected with the General 
Econom)', wherever stationed or employed, including all the Indians 
then under the care of its missionaries and all the children, both of 
members and others, in the several institutions with their overseers 
and teachers; the offices of all who held positions being carefully 
noted. Not the least interesting feature of the occasion was the 
address of Bishop Peter Boehler at the lovefeast, held in the after- 
noon at the "stone house" (Whitefield House), in which he enter- 
tained the assembly with historical reminiscences of the locality, from 
the time when he led the first band of pioneers to the place in 1740. 
The walls of the new building were laid up to the top of the first 
story at the end of June and on August 31, the masonry was finished 
to the eaves of the roof. When Boehler left, on September 18, to sail 
from New York, he expressed his delight at seeing the frame-work 
of the roof raised, and being able to report the building as nearing 
completion when he reached Europe. But it was not finished until 
more than a year after this, and was first dedicated, November 13, 
1756. The panic of the awful November of 1755, interrupted the 



1749 1755- 283 

rapidly progressing worlc, and during the months of terror that 
ensued, it was entirely suspended. 

Meanwhile another commodious structure, one of the most 
substantial in the group, had been erected at Bethlehem in 1754. 
This was the large stone house that stood until 1869 on the site 
of the present Moravian Publication Office and of the building 
adjoining it to the north. It was variously known at different periods 
as the "men's house," the "boys' institute," the "new children's 
house" — when the turreted building on Church Street was known as 
the old one — the "family house" and the "economy house." Originally 
it was intended to afford better quarters for a considerable number 
of married men who, under the make-shift necessities of that time, 
when dwelling apartments for separate families were yet very limited, 
had to be thus arranged in large room companies, while their wives 
occupied several rooms in another house. Part of the building was 
designed also for such separate family dwellings. It was, further- 
more, to contain more working room for the increased number 
needed of such artisans as shoe-makers and tailors, the work-shops 
in the Brethren's House being over-crowded. At the same time it 
was to enable the authorities to provide more satisfactory accom- 
modations for the large number of boys who were to take possession 
of the rooms before this occupied by the men. This is why this stone 
building was, at first, called simply the men's house. 

The project of building such a house had been broached by 
Spangenberg already in March, 1753. A few weeks later it was 
discussed at a general meeting, when it was proposed to construct 
it with two main entrances, one for this body of men and for access 
to the workshops, the other to lead into the part designed for family 
dwellings. On April 2, the plans having been finished, the foundation 
lines were staked off. In June, when it appeared that it could not 
be proceeded with on account of the harvest and other pressing 
work, it was decided to merely lay up the walls of the cellar that 
had been excavated, so it should not cave in if left during the 
following winter. Thus it remained until the spring of 1754. Having 
been completed during the summer, it was formally taken possession 
of on September 30. A procession was formed at the Community 
House, headed by Bishops Spangenberg and David Nitschmann, 
with Father Nitschmann walking between them, and they were 
greeted by a band of music stationed on the balcony that extended 
along the east side of the new building. Matthew Schropp, as 



284 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Warden of the house, met them at the door and escorted them in, 
and then a lovefeast was held. That building which had a history 
in connection with school-work and with the military occupation 
of Bethlehem during the Revolutionary War, is remembered by many 
as one of the plain, solid structures of the olden time which helped 
to give the place "a foreign look." The character of the work done 
by the old Bethlehem builders was tested in the hard labor it cost to 




THE FAMILY HOUSE, 1754-1869. 

demolish the structure. It was sixty by thirty feet in dimensions 
and three stories high. The large attic floor was lighted by dormer 
windows. It had two front entrances with passages running through 
the house. There were corresponding passages in the second story 
with commtuiication at the rear by means of the balcony on the 
east side, from which doors opened into the passages. On the first 
floor the entire north section was used as a shop by the cabinet- 
makers and joiners. The corresponding south section, front to rear, 
was the shoe-makers' shop. In the middle section were the Warden's 
room and a conference room. The second story, middle and north 
sections, was cut into four dwelling rooms and the south section was 



1/49 '755- 285 

left in one large room for any purpose for which it might be needed. 
The third story was used as a dormitory, in sections and the attic 
floor contained clothing and store rooms. It had a cellar with 
massive vaulted masonry along the west side, towards the street, and 
the east half of the basement was used as the linen-weaving room. 
But a large part of it was soon turned to another use. 

The home and school for boys needed more space. The room in the 
Brethren's House had to be vacated and the quarters in the log house, 
to the west of the Community House, then in use by them, were insuffi- 
cient. The other log house, west of that, at the end of which the water 
tower — familiar from extant pictures — was built, was uncomfortable 
and unsuitable for the purpose to which it was then being devoted — 
hospital quarters for women and rooms for the accommodation of 
mothers with infants. The men were ready at once to cheerfulh^ 
surrender their commodious rooms in the new building, for the 
comfort of wives and children was in question. On February 20, 
I7SS> it^ became the "boys' institute." The boys moved into the new 
stone house, the invalid women, the nursing mothers and the several 
widows who lived with them as nurses and attendants, were trans- 
ferred to the inner log house near the Community House which the 
boys had just left, and the company of men established their c[uarters 
in the less desirable outer log house — the water tower building. 
These changes which involved the moving of a hundred and sixty-five 
persons with their effects, including, in part, even beds, were accom- 
plished in twelve hours on February 20. A chain of incidents like 
these reveals the kind of system and arrangements that had to be 
resorted to under the circumstances of that time. It ma}- be men- 
tioned, in connection with these references to institutional and 
private dwelling arrangements, that on May 2, 1755 — the day before 
the corner-stone of Nazareth Hall was laid — the widows of the 
Economy who had to frequently shift their common quarters to 
accommodate themselves to changing arrangements, with the 
exception of several who filled special positions at Bethlehem, all 
removed to Nazareth and took possession of the better of the two 
original log houses built in 1740 — that which is yet standing. This 
became the home for the widows of Bethlehem and Nazareth until 
the large stone building on Church Street was erected for this pur- 
pose in 1768. 

During the summer of 1754 plans began to take definite shape 
for adding another important building, a tavern on the north 



20b A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

side of the river, "not too near to Bethlehem nor 3'et too far 
away." This need began to be spoken of as early as 1747, when the 
frequent difficulty experienced in conveying travelers across to the 
Crown Inn at night in bad weather, or when the water was high, led 
to the consideration of the subject. On July 10, 1754, it was first 
formally discussed by a general meeting of men. This difficulty was 
again spoken of, and it was remarked that the prevalent ideas of hos- 
pitaHty to strangers required that courtesies should be shown to trav- 
elers who wished to pass the night at Bethlehem, and that this was 
often a very difficult and perplexing matter under existing arrange- 
ments, because there were hardly any private family homes that 
could offer such accommodation. It was observed also that one of 
their neighbors, "a man of some standing," had declared his inten- 
tion to open a tavern quite near the Bethlehem line, if one was not 
soon erected by the authorities of the place. This was probably their 
neighbor eastward, John Jones, who had been appointed constable of 
the township to succeed Anton Albrecht, who removed to Phillips- 
b)urg. A committee of six was appointed to select a site. On July 
16, they reported to the Church Council a site "on the road to the 
"brick sheds, opposite the stone quarry at the Monocacy." It was 
proposed "to open the road to Easton right across the field, so that 
it would lead to the tavern, and to vacate the road hitherto running 
across the Bethlehem line and forming an elbow ; this to be presented 
to Court for approval." The report was adopted. Further steps 
were then postponed. It was decided to proceed first with the erec- 
tion of Nazareth Hall. Besides this, in February, 1755, when this 
conclusion was reached, the necessity of enlarging the grain-growing 
area at Bethlehem by grubbing and cleaning fifty acres of new land 
south of the Lehigh in time for spring ploughing, called for a num- 
ber of laborers. The great scarcity of grain was being felt. A 
thousand bushels had been bought during the winter in addition to' 
what had been raised on all the farms, and much more was needed 
before the next harvest. Thus the building of the Inn was delayed, 
and when it might otherwise have been begun, the demoralizing 
ordeal of the Indian war occasioned further postponement, so that 
it was not proceeded with until 1758. It will be referred to again in 
another chapter. 

At the time when this enterprise was first being seriously consid- 
ered, the increase of travel through Bethlehem, and of visitors from 
all parts, in consequence of the establishment of the county-seat at 



1749 1755- 287 

Easton and of highways from there to different points in the country 
that were being opened up and developed, led to the more frequent 
consideration of various matters involved in relations to the public 
by the Bethlehem authorities. Thus in the autumn of 1754, two inci- 
dents, in connection with the growth of communication and traffic by 
land and water, occurred that deserve mention. The first was of 
some importance in the topography of the region ; the second was 
interesting merely as an episode of local enterprise. On September 
26, the records refer to the order of the Provincial Council to the 
authorities of Northampton County to lay out a road from Easton 
to Reading, in the new County of Berks ; and to an inquiry on the 
part of the county authorities addressed to the board at Bethlehem 
in regard to their preference in the matter of its course past the town. 
It was not deemed desirable to have the highway pass near the cen- 
tral establishments, even so near as along the line on which the store 
stood — the present Market Street. Therefore, two propositions were 
favored and referred to a committee to be formulated. One was to 
direct its course, in approaching Bethlehem from the east, so that it 
would pass along the foot of the hill, south towards the river, where 
the Indian cabins of Friedenshuetten had stood, and thence to the 
ferry. The other was to run it along the northern line beyond the 
site chosen for the projected tavern, there turning southward — the 
present Main Street — to the ferry, and to adapt the proposed change 
of roads intended to suit the establishment of the public house at that 
point, to the larger plan of this new highway. The latter proposi- 
tion was adopted and on October 15, 1755, it is stated that Justice 
Horsfield went to Easton to help lay out "the King's Road to Read- 
ing." The dire events that caused a long suspension of this enter- 
prise, as well as of the tavern building, opened, like the burst of a 
tornado, a little more than a month after this beginning was made. 
The other incident alluded to was an experiment in river naviga- 
tion from Bethlehem to Philadelphia made in 1754. On July 10, the 
same day on which the building of the tavern was discussed, the 
project was broached in the general Church Council, of building a 
boat to run down the river with products for the Philadelphia market 
and return with wares for the store and other purchases. Two sailors 
from the Irene, Andrew Schoute and Peter Brink, with the negroes, 
Anthony and Thomas, were appointed to explore the channel from 
Bethlehem to Philadelphia when the water was low, noting obstruc- 
tions and tracing a course over the falls. A flat-boat was built, pro- 



288 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENXSYLVANIA. 

vided with two masts to carry what was thought would be adequate 
sail. The rigging was constructed by Schoute and Brink, with the 
assistance of two other sailors of the Irene, Peter Drews and Lam- 
bert Garrison. The launch at the Bethlehem boat-yard, where the 
several ferry flats had been built, took place on September 27. The 
school boys were given a holiday, and they helped to haul it on roll- 
ers to the water. When it was floated, some of the officials of Beth- 
lehem were taken a little way down the river on a trial trip. The 
record states that seven men and seven women, accompanied by 
seven boat-builders and sailors, were on board. Meanwhile, Father 
Nitschmann served a luncheon on shore to the boys who had helped 
to tug at the ropes. He and they all then boarded the boat — fifty- 
six boys and eleven men — and sailed up and down the stream, sing- 
ing hymns. The record states that with the first load, the boat drew 
nine, and with the second load, eleven inches of water. At the sug- 
gestion of Bishop Spangenberg, the favorite name Irene was given 
this Delaware boat, and she was then referred to as the "Little 
Irene," in distinction from the larger Moravian ship that ploughed 
the Atlantic. This gala-day was closed with the harvest-home ban- 
quet held on the square between the Community House and the Sis- 
ters' House. Instrumental music was rendered from the balcony in 
front of the turreted building in which the boarding-school for girls 
was then domiciled, and the smaller girls gathered in the doorway 
and passage and sang hymns. The history of the Little Irene is brief. 
On November 6, she started down the Lehigh on her first trip to 
Philadelphia with a load of linseed oil, in command of Schoute, with 
several assistants. They reached the city and delivered their cargo, 
but on November 16, they returned to Bethlehem without the boat. 
It was too broad to be gotten up stream past the falls, and was left 
at the city to be sold. They reported officially and recommended 
the purchase of a Delaware flat that was for sale not far from Beth- 
lehem. It was prudently decided first to hire one on trial, and con- 
sider the question of purchasing later. 

Another enterprise that engaged the thought and skill of Bethle- 
hem mechanics in 1754, more distinctly marked an epoch in the pro- 
gress of the town. This was the successful experiment that gives 
the credit to Bethlehem of constructing the first water-works in 
Pennsylvania. The problem of finding an easier way to bring the 
water of the spring up the hill and distrilDuting it where needed, than 
bv means of a cart and buckets, had been officially discussed and had 



1749 I7SS- 289 

engaged the thought of the ingenious Hans Christiansen, the new 
mill-wright of Bethlehem. There was the water-power that ran the 
oil and bark mill. That wheel might be made to do more work. A 
water tower above, and one or more tanks were easily constructed. 
The matter of pipes to convey the water to the tanks, especially 
the question of material, was important. Yet more serious a 
problem was the construction of the necessary pump. John 
Boehner, the West India missionary, one of the pioneers of 
Bethlehem, was on a visit at the place. He was an ingenious man, 
had some knowledge of such mechanism which he had seen success- 
fully operated and was interested in the subject. He made a model 
of a pump and connections. He and Christiansen discussed it 
together and the latter set about the task. Carefully selected trunks 
of hemlock were rafted down the Lehigh from Gnadenhuetten in 
March, 1754, from which water-pipes were to be made. While 
Christiansen worked at his pump, a building was erected near the oil- 
mill where the power was to be supplied for his first experiments, and 
already on the evening of June 21, he demonstrated the feasibility of 
his plan by forcing water as high as the houses around the square in 
the town above, to the astonishment and joy of all. Then the 
machinery was perfected, a separate water-wheel was built, the pipes 
were laid, the water tower was gotten ready, at the end of the outer- 
most of the two log houses west of the Community House, a large 
tank was constructed in the square in front of the girls' school, 
between the Community House and the Sisters' House. On May 
^7) I755> the water was successfully forced up the water tower 
and on June 27, the flow into the tank in the square began. The 
regular operation of the Bethlehem water-works was commenced 
and the occupation of the water carriers trudging up the hill from 
"the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate" was at an end. The 
value of the spring and the importance of properly guarding it were 
appreciated more highly than ever.^* 



34 In aboard-meeting on September 2, following, it was observed that nobody who did not 
understand it should attempt to clean the spring, for in this country the springs had the 
peculiarity that they dried up if stirred in at the wrong time. Did this refer again to the folk- 
notion mentioned earlier, that the state of the moon must be heeded? On February 4, 1 751, 
the singular record occurs that the spring which had ceased to flow about a year prior to 
that, was suddenly running again ; as were also springs along the Monocacy on the way to. 
Nazareth, that had been been dry more than a year. 



290 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Nothing about Bethlehem in those days excited the interest of 
visitors so much as tlie water-works. Even before the plan had been 
successfully tested, when they were yet in process of construction, 
the project was mentioned in descriptions of the place, as one of its 
notable features. The earliest such reference to it in print is probably 
that of the Swedish Lutheran Provost, the Rev. Israel Acrelius, in 
his history of the Swedish Churches of former New Sweden and 
descriptions of the adjacent regions, written in 1758. He visited 
Bethlehem "in company with the Rev. Pastor Peter Brunnholtz, 
Pastor Eric Unander and Mr. Sleydon," in June, 1754, just two days 
before the first successful experiment, when the water was forced 
"as high as the houses." He refers to this project at which "the 
Brethren were working very actively and industriously." This, he 
says, "will be a very useful work for the cloister,^^ for hitherto it has 
kept a man busy from morning till night to carry the water up the 
hill to the houses." 

Among the various industries mentioned in an interesting manner 
by Dr. Acrelius, was a particular one that reveals the disposition of 
that time at Bethlehem to experiment with every possible thing, in 
extending the range of activities and products. This was the culture 
of silk-worms carried on in the Brethren's House since 1752. He 
found two men in charge of the brood who were kept busj^ gathering 
and spreading mulberry leaves. It was explained to him that there 

35 The description given of Bethlehem by the Rev. Provost, while highly interesting and, 
in the main, not as objectionable in tone as the animadversions of Lutheran divines of that 
time usually were, nevertheless reveals a preconceived aversion to the Brethren. A 
quizzing manner, with bantering questions and derogatory comments by the party, made 
their escorts at Bethlehem reserved and ill at ease; for they were not sure that it was not 
all preparatory to a new contribution to the library of publications against "The Herm- 
huters " that had accumulated. Spangenberg, to whom he had a letter of introduction, and 
who would have met him with ease and dignity, as his peer in all respects, and would, 
perhaps, have enlightened him on some points, was, unfortunately, not at home. That his 
acquaintance with the Moravian Church was very defective, and that he entirely miscon- 
ceived the genesis of things at Bethlehem, as well as the nature of the settlement and its 
establishments, appears in the opening sentence of his description : " Bethlehem is a 
Protestant cloister belonging to the Hermhut Brotherhood, established in the year 1743 by 
Count Zinzendorif, the founder of the Brotherhood, and instituted by David Nitschmann, 
Spangenberg, Anna Nitschmann and others, as the elders and officers of the society." It 
sounds like some articles in modern newspapers, by persons who, after reading such accounts, 
come and stroll about the town a few hours, pick up some stories at random and then pro- 
ceed to write up " Bethlehem and the Moravians." The extracts given above are from the 
translation of Aci'elius published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1S76. 




BETHLEHEM 
1750 
1756 



1/49 1755- 291 

were always persons available for such light duty "who could not be 
employed for anything else." He drew the amusing inference that 
these were the "indispensable" musicians who were continually in 
readiness for service and could not "be put to any hard work;" 
although the previous evening, when he asked his escort whether he 
could not hear some music, he was told that it was doubtful because 
the men "were weary from their work." Some of the hardest toilers, 
stone-masons, carpenters and farmers, were among the musicians. 
He was informed that £20 might be expected from the silk product 
of that year, and that there was a larger cocoonery at Nazareth. 
That one was started in 1753 by the Rev. Philip Christian Bader, 
house chaplain at Christiansbrunn, who had come over with Span- 
genberg two years before and had made the original attempts at 
Bethlehem. Several times the yield of silk was considerable. 

The first efforts to foster this industry were suggested to the minds 
of these men by the large number of mulberry trees in the forest 
about Bethlehem. Experiments were tried also with the cocoons of 
wild worms found on these trees. Bader's cocoonery was continued 
a number of years at Christiansbrunn. ^° 

The more important industries at Bethlehem were at this time in 
successful operation, well manned and well regulated ; and the variety 
of articles produced, not only to meet the practical needs of the com- 
munity but also for sale to others, is surprising. Spangenberg's 
executive ability which had again gained control of the situation, the 
efficiency and faithfulness which, in the main, distinguished the men 
in charge of departments, as well as the cheerful diligence with which 
most of the mechanics and laborers applied themselves to their tasks, 

36 There have been four silk epochs at Bethlehem and in the surrounding region. The 
second was near the end of the eighteenth century, when scientific and industrial organiza- 
tions were encouraging efforts at silk culture, even offering premiums. Bishop Ettwein at 
Bethlehem, and the Rev. David Zeisberger — cousin of the famous missionary — at Nazareth, 
were giving special attention to it and making it fairly profitable. They were in cor- 
respondence in 1793, with President Stiles of Yale College, who was conspicuously in- 
terested in this, as in so many other efforts in the line of scientific progress and economic 
improvement. The third was the contagion of the wide-spread, notorious morus mid- 
ticaidis craze of 1837-39 which also struck Northampton County, when so many farmers, 
thinking to get rich quickly by raising silk worms, were victimized into planting their fields 
with real or alleged mulberry trees, by tricky speculators. With very few exceptions, the 
venture never advanced beyond excitedly buying the trees, planting them and then, when 
the fever passed, digging them up in disgust and burning them. The fourth came in the last 
two decades of the nineteenth century, when the era of silk-mills suddenly opened in the 
Lehigh Valley and brought a new and important addition to the industries of Bethlehem. 



292 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

combined to keep the machinery of the whole running smoothly. 
There had been a disposition among some, for a while, to chafe under 
the rigid restraints and minute regulations of the Economy. Novelty 
had worn off and enthusiasm subsided. The more substantial 
qualities of sterling loyalty and staunch faithfulness to the common 
purpose were then tested. Here and there one severed his con- 
nection and went his way or subjected himself to expulsion. Some 
such returned and sought readmission. Those who were in control 
knew that the system, as then operated, was necessarily only a 
temporary expedient and it was never intended to be anything 
else. The question was carefully considered whether the time had 
come to do away with it, but the difficulty of dealing with all the 
new problems that would be involved in radical changes, not yet 
prepared for, appeared, at that time, to be greater than the difficulty 
of maintaining the existing methods. Hence, in the summer of 1754, 
the conclusion was reached to continue the General Economy a few 
years longer, and meanwhile to develop the regulations to which all 
voluntarily bound themselves, into something more like a contract, 
in which men would feel not merely sentiment and enthusiasm 
appealed to, but conscience and honor laid under obligation. On 
August 19, 1754, a general meeting of all the adult members at Beth- 
lehem and "the upper places" was held for the purpose of considering 
the fundamentals of the situation. Bishop Spangenberg communi- 
cated a document in eight elaborate paragraphs, setting forth the 
central objects for which the co-operative union existed, and the 
cardinal principles upon which it rested. These, when fully elucidated, 
were to be submitted for common agreement, formal adoption and 
signature. There was a second reading and discussion on the 21st 
and a third on September 2 ; all having been given full opportunity to 
express their views in the Church Council, or, if they preferred, in 
writing to the executive board. The paragraphs were all adopted 
and signed as the first formal "Brotherly Agreement" of the people 
of Bethlehem and the Nazareth stations. After this had been 
accepted by all, with a general toning up of morale and strength- 
ening of bonds for a new start on this basis, various special 
measures were agreed to, more strictly of a business char- 
acter. These had long been felt to be desirable, but prior to 
those general discussions and conclusions, would not so readily have 
found intelligent acceptance. The most important of them, perfected 
and communicated in November, was a formal agreement in writing 



1749 1755- 293 

drawn up in final shape, in English, by Charles Brockden of Phila- 
delphia with the aid of legal counsel. It bound each male 
adult who remained a member of the Economy or joined it, in five 
points. These were a declaration of his purpose in belonging to it, 
as set forth in the Brotherly Agreement ; a disavowal of any improper 
Or undue influence of any kind from any quarter; an agreement to 
give due notice of intention to leave and to peaceably withdraw upon 
due notice of request to do so ; an agreement to accept all conditions 
as found and conform to all regulations ; a promise to sign a quit- 
claim or release of all demands upon the property held by the Pro- 
prietor for the Church, or of wages for work performed while Hving 
at Bethlehem as a member of the Economy under the accepted 
conditions. Over against the misunderstanding and misrepresentation 
to which the general terms of membership have been subjected, it 
is of importance that four facts be borne in mind. The first is that 
no individual or body of individuals was enriched in property by the 
labor of the people under this agreement. The second is that every 
man, woman and child was entirely provided for in all material and 
spiritual things — fed, clothed, nursed in sickness, instructed and 
pastorally cared for, while a member of the Economy under this 
agreement. Many were thus much better provided for and made 
much more comfortable than they would have been if taking care of 
themselves. The third fact is that every adult was entirely at liberty 
to leave at any time if he wished, and to enter employment for wages 
elsewhere, or follow his inclinations as he chose. The fourth is 
that these agreements did not in any way affect the private property 
of any one possessed of an estate. If any one had loaned money to 
the general treasury or made it his banker, the release he signed had 
no bearing on this, which was purely a business transaction, apart 
from the agreement signed, and settlement was made the same as 
with any other creditor. 

That this strengthening of the institution on a more business-like 
basis for a further term of existence was thus accomplished without 
any defection or even serious difficulty in securing unanimous agree- 
ment, with an adult population of nearly four hundred involved, is 
all the more notable because the number of quite new recruits who 
would be more likely to agree, as novices, to anything that was pro- 
posed, was very small. The men, with few exceptions, had made 
trial of the situation long enough to know all sides and aspects of it, 
both desirable and undesirable. Thev had also learned enough of 



294 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

surrounding conditions and opportunities to have felt whatever there 
was of temptation to break away from the compact, and either with- 
draw to begin an independent life elsewhere, or press for the abolition 
of the system when the subject was opened for general debate. 

The members of Gottlieb Pezold's colony, which had lately arrived, 
had been only in part incorporated in the Economy. Many were 
distributed at the new settlements in Lancaster County and in 
Wachovia, North Carolina. After that, until 1761, there were far 
fewer arrivals from Europe than in previous years. When that colony 
was safely landed at New York, Captain Garrison determined to 
quit the sea. He passed most of the time to the middle of July, 1755, 
at Bethlehem. On January 4, 1755, his son Nicholas Garrison, Jr., 
was ofificially appointed captain of the Irene for her next voyage. He 
sailed from New York, February 4, and on August 12, brought the 
vessel back to her dock ;but under trying circumstances, for small-pox 
had broken out on board, carrying off three children during the 
voyage. The passengers were placed in quarantine on Kennedy's 
(Bedloe's) Island. Only four of these with four children are men- 
tioned by name in the records and were Moravians who came to 
Bethlehem ; one of the children being born while the mother was in 
quarantine, suffering with the disease. When Bishop Spangenberg 
heard of their distressing plight he hastened to New York and tried 
to secure their release and transfer to private quarters, but could 
not effect anything. These persons, who reached Bethlehem 
September 25, were William Thorn with his wife and two children 
from England — he left Bethlehem "without saying good-bye," the 
end of March, 1757, to shift for himself — and the Rev. Lewis William 
Weiss^' from Germany, with his wife, the infant born in quarantine 
at New York, and another child. When the Irene sailed again, 



37 This was the later well-known Lewis Weiss, conveyancer, counsellor-at-law and Justice, 
of Philadelphia. He had studied in the Moravian Theological Seminary at Lindheim and 
been ordained, 1746, but did not follow the ministry after he came to America. In framing 
legal documents and as a guide in all matters relating to title and conveyance of real estate, 
he was an acknowledged expert of first rank in Philadelphia. He rendered the Moravian 
Church important service for many years as legal agent and counsel, and at one period (17S8) 
the Church owed more than has ever been acknowledged in published history, to his ex- 
cellent judgement and acumen, and his persistent concern for the welfare of its interests, 
even when not listened to for a while, in persuading the authorities to take special measures, 
which he saw were necessary at that stage, to secure and establish the title to its real estate 
in Pennsyvania beyond all possible question, and remove all suspicion of a flaw which the 
unclearness of certain important documents might have awakened. 



1749 1755- 295 

November 9, 1755, she was in command of Christian Jacobsen of 
Staten Island, the able and experienced seaman who had made a 
number of V03'ages, as mate, with Captain Garrison, and now became 
captain of the vessel.^* Captain Garrijon and his wife were passengers 
on this voyage. 

One long-familiar figure was wanting at those important meetings 
in the summer and autumn of 1754, and at the inception of the newest 
enterprise on the Barony of Nazareth, in the spring of 1755. Henry 
Antes was not there. These affairs did not lie in the sphere of more 
general business of the Church, with which he yet had to do, and 
the heavy labors of his busy life had broken his powerful frame so 
that during those months he was much of the time an invalid, fre- 
quently suffering intensely. He visited Bethlehem the last time 
on June 16, 1754. After that, when consultations with him were 
necessary, they took place at his home. On June 13, 1755, a message 
came to Bethlehem that he was very ill and his daughter was taken 
to Fredericktown to see him. There were repeated pilgrimages to 
his bed-side during the following weeks. On July 3, Bishop Span- 
genberg and Captain Garrison went to visit him the last time. The 
Bethlehem diary contains this record on Sunday, July 20: "A 
messenger came from Fredericktown this afternoon with the word 
that our dear brother, Henry Antes, who has rendered such good 
service to the Church and to the Economy at Bethlehem, passed 
away, happy in the Lord, this morning." Many a tear was shed at 
Bethlehem when this message was published. "All were very much 
affected," says the record. At five o'clock that Sunday afternoon, 
Spangenberg and his wife, Abraham Reinke, John Bechtel, Matthew 
Schropp, and eight others set out for Fredericktown. The funeral 
which took place the next day, was attended by a concourse of six 
hundred persons, as the record states, of all creeds and persuasions. 
Bishop Spangenberg spoke the words of consolation, the Rev. 
Abraham Reinke read the service at the grave, and ten of the men 

38 He got back to New York, June 2, 1756, having on board fifteen single men, viz : — 
Seidel, John Henry (leader), Mueller, John, 

Boehninghausen, John Bartholomew, Ollringshaw, Henry, 

Busse, Andrew, Rippel, John Michael, 

Hall, James, Roth, John, 

Hellerman, Caspar George, Ruch, Michael, 

Koorts, EUert, Schmaling, William Christopher, 

Mentzinger, George Ernst, Seneff, George, 

Schmidt, Hans Jacob. 



296 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

from Bethlehem bore his remains to their place of rest on his farm. 
July 22, at ten o'clock at night, the Bethlehem delegation reached 
home again, bringing his eight-year-old daughter Benigna who, 
according to her father's wish and with her mother's full consent, was 
to be brought up and educated under the care of the Church. Dr. 
Adolph Meyer and David Bishop were appointed guardians of his 
minor children, in accordance with his last will and testament. 
He had also given instructions that all papers and letters relat- 
ing to affairs of the Church that were found among his effects, 
were to be sent at once to Bethlehem after his decease. He 
had selected a spot in the Bethlehem cemetery at which his remains 
were to rest. This could not be, but very soon a grave was made at 
that spot for another. On the morning of July 22, Justice Daniel 
Brodhead, who had come from his home up the Delaware to be 
treated for cancer of the throat by Dr. Otto, passed away at the home 
of James Burnside, north of Bethlehem. At the noon-day service his 
death was announced. It was stated that he had been a friend who 
was always interested in the welfare and prosperity of the Church 
and that he had departed in the happy anticipation and ardent longing 
to meet his Saviour. Justice Horsfield took charge of the funeral 
arrangements. Two other Justices of the County, Craig and Wilson, 
were among the large number of people from the surrounding 
country who, with his widow and her two sons, and the people of 
Bethlehem followed his remains to the cemetery at seven o'clock on 
the evening of July 23, and saw them laid to rest at the spot where 
the grave of Henry Antes was to have been. The weeks of his patient 
suffering at the house of Burnside were rendered the more pathetic 
by the fact that his host himself was at the time an invalid nearing 
his end, and they occupied a room together. On August 8, early in 
the morning, Burnside died. Horsfield sent messengers to all parts 
of the County to announce the departure of the Assemblyman. The 
funeral on the loth was attended by about 350 persons from the sur- 
rounding regions, besides the Bethlehem people. The Rev. Abraham 
Reinke preached the funeral sermon in English. Doubtless these two 
men as they passed their last days in that room, associated as they 
were with public affairs, spoke together of the threatening calamities 
that might follow the disaster to the British arms in the west, and, 
as men whose hearts were tender in the shadow of death, perhaps 
they prayed together for Pennsylvania and for Bethlehem. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Bethlehem During the Indian Uprising. 
1755—1756. 

The autumn of 1755 brought dark and dreary days to all the set- 
tlements on the frontiers and, therefore, also to Bethlehem. Although 
the storm burst upon the Forks of the Delaware with appalling sud- 
denness, the clouds had been slowly gathering for months, and 
already in mid-summer the first roll of distant thunder was heard. 
The report of the defeat of the British forces and the death of Gen- 
eral Braddock at Fort Duquesne, was brought to Bethlehem on Sat- 
urday morning, July 19. 

The people were assembling to morning prayer when Nicholas 
Scull arrived from Philadelphia, as courier from the Provincial Coun- 
cil to Albany, to convey the report of this calamit)'- with all speed 
to General Shirley. By virtue of a letter from Secretary Peters,'- he 
called for a fresh horse and a guide to Dansbury to expedite his jour- 
ney. They were, of course, furnished without delay. 

While this occurrence produced considerable sensation, compara- 
tively few at Bethlehem possessed that knowledge of the general 
situation which would suggest to them all that the catastrophe por- 
tended ; and probably the messenger who came the next day, not in 
haste and excitement, but with quiet sadness, to announce the death 

' " On his Majesty's service : 

To the United Brethren at Bethlehem and Nazareth : 

Gentlemen — The Bearer is sent by the Council, in the absence of the Gover- 
nor, with Despatches of the utmost consequence to General Shirley, at Albany. I earnestly 
entreat, you will furnish him with a good horse, if he wants one, and a guide to shew him 
the nearest way. If he arrives, time enough, it may be of infinite service to his Majesty's 
arms, and if you assist, it will be much for your honour. I am, gentlemen, 

Philadelphia, iSth July, 1755. Your humble servant, 

To the Brethren RICHARD PETERS, 

at Bethlehem and Nazareth. by order of council." 

297 



29<5 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of Henry Antes, caused far more emotion among the people. Not 
until four months later did they all realize fully the significance of 
that French victory for all the border regions, for the country over 
which the savage allies of the French had planned to wield the 
scourge of vengeance on account of the doings of 1737, and even for 
the Moravians, for their Indian missions and their little town of 
Bethlehem, at which the finger of suspicion had so long been pointed 
with slanderous inuendoes about serving French interests. Those 
at Bethlehem who were most familiar with the larger connections of 
circumstances and events, understood, of course, the uneasy and 
uncertain disposition of the powerful Iroquois confederacy, the 
irreconcilable Monseys, the treacherous Shawanese of Wyoming, and 
the many disaffected Delawares who were not under the influence 
of the missionaries. They understood that the French had a stronger 
hold upon them than that which the English had been trying to 
maintain, and that such a sudden reverse coming to the British arms 
might precipitate an Indian crisis. It was, furthermore, not unknown 
to better-informed men at Bethlehem that attempts had been made 
by French emissaries to tamper even with non-English elements 
among the white population of Pennsylvania in some quarters ; that 
it was a part of their cunning policy to pretend that they had their 
quiet allies among the German people of the Province in order to 
weaken the confidence of the government in its own citizens, while 
they counted upon the strong Quaker element in the Assembly with 
its passive policy of non-resistance— in some cases a sincere convic- 
tion and in others, perhaps, as charged, merely the cant under which 
was masked a dogged antagonism to the Proprietaries in the bicker- 
ings of the time— as a partial handicap to aggressive measures on 
the part of the government. The Moravians of Bethlehem, being 
classed with the Germans in suspected foreign sympathies and with 
the Quakers in alleged obstruction of all defensive measures, besides 
standing in closer relations to the Indians than any other people, 
naturally came under particular suspicion from these three points 
of view. Therefore, while there was not a grain of truth in the accu- 
sations against them in any of these three respects, the situation 
made it very difificult for them, and afforded abundant opportunity 
for those who mistrusted them to conceive a strong mass of cir- 
cumstantial evidence. They did not get excited, did not have much 
to say to any one, either about public matters or about their own 
affairs, did not, like so many of their neighbors, let their tools lie 



1755 1756. 299 

idle in the shops, the summer fruit rot in the orchards and gardens 
and the weeds grow rank in their corn, wliile they gathered at the 
court-house, the taverns and the mills to talk about the signs of the 
times, but went quietly on minding their own business and follow- 
ing their accustomed routine. This rendered their position all the 
more perplexing and suspicious to wrought-up minds. But more 
than anything else, the incessant tramp of squads of Indians to and 
fro between Bethlehem and the Wyoming Valley — often quite need- 
less and both burdensome and annoying to Bethlehem, but not to 
be prevented — kept suspicion and fear at a feverish stage among 
the people who were watching it. 

The great scarcity of food in the Indian country during that try- 
ing summer reached the degree of positive famine at one time. 
Under the double constraint put upon them b}' their lords, the heads 
of the Six Nations, to the north, and the government of Pennsylvania 
to the south, the sullen and restive bands in the Wyoming region 
were kept confined within their boundaries. The utter destitution 
of the season, which sharpened the other incentives to desperate 
undertakings, when the ambitious and wily Teedyuscung and his 
confederates saw their opportunity to lead them on to open violence, 
was frequently the sole cause of this restless roving up and down 
the country. Some deserters from the Moravian Indian congrega- 
tion, who had gone up and joined the camps of the savages, told of 
the good living at Gnadenhuetten and the abundant food to be had 
by all visitors at Bethlehem. Many a strolling band, suspected by 
uneasy people to be carrying secret French messages to and from 
the Moravians, and even conveying French powder and lead from 
an imaginary secret magazine at Bethlehem, visited the place for no 
other purpose than to enjoy a few substantial meals furnished by 
the people who, in pursuance of their altruistic aims towards the 
Indians, incurred all inconvenience and took all risks to hold the 
good will of every class and kind of them. Indeed, since these 
excursions from the Wyoming Valley could not be prevented, the 
Brethren dreaded the presence of the strollers less at Bethlehem 
than at Gnadenhuetten ; for it was of extreme importance to keep 
that little congregation of converts, who were remaining faithful, 
from being entangled by the subtle arch-schemer Teedyuscung 
and the renegades whom he employed; coming to them as their 
brethren and using this advantage in the attempt to draw them into 
alliance. Besides this, the time came when there was no food to 



300 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

spare at Gnadenhuetten. A heavy frost on May 31 had ruined the 
wheat crop over an extensive area and made the outlook very 
gloomy. On July i, the "melancholy report" came from there that 
the provisions, not only of the Indian congregation, but also of the 
missionary household, would be entirely exhausted in a fortnight, 
and no prospect of supply from any source was in sight ; and then 
the record states, "behold the same hour we received a letter from 
Philadelphia telling us that a hundred bushels of corn lay theire 
ready for this purpose, and only needed to be sent for." On July 
4, the first wagon-load of this corn arrived for the relief of Gnaden- 
huetten, and there was joy at the thought that now this new test 
that had come upon the steadfastness of those Indians was removed. 

One of the measures that had been adopted, the preceding April, 
to prevent dangerous Indians from visiting Gnadenhueiten, was to 
announce in the Indian country that the blacksmith and gunsmith 
at that place would not do work for any "strange Indians," but 
would only serve the residents and such others who were well known 
and trustworthy. Among those who came to Bethlehem, at various 
times during the first months of 1755, was the famous Shawanese 
chief Paxnous (Paxinosa), who so adjusted his attitude and move- 
ments that the government had abundant proof of his value as an 
opponent of the dark conspiracies. He remained a consistent friend 
of the Moravian missionaries and faithful to whatever promises he 
made them ; later interesting himself, even with hazard to his o^vn 
standing among his warriors, in devising means to rescue certain 
of them from deadly peril and enable them to escape. 

On February 17 of that year, when his wife, with whom he had 
lived faithfully for thirty-eight years — "a surprising thing," says the 
record — was baptized at Bethlehem, and the Brethren expressed the 
hope that he would yet follow her example, "he responded with a 
hearty Kehclle" — an exclamation of concurrence. On several of his 
visits he was accompanied by Abraham the Mohican, one of the 
original converts, a man of standing and influence among the 
Indians, who, although he had not become alienated from his Chris- 
tian teachers and friends, had withdrawn from the Indian congre- 
gation and was living in Wyoming. He was one of those whose 
equivocal attitude, while they were classed by the people as "Mora- 
vian Indians," but were outside of Moravian constraint, was so 
mystifying to many, so troublesome to the Brethren and awakened 
so much distrust among persons who did not discriminate between 



1755 1756. 30I 

the converts living at the stations, under the eye of the missionaries, 
and those who had strayed away and over whose movements no con- 
trol could be exercised. The Moravians could not be chargeable 
with any measure of responsibility for what any Indians were or said 
or did, when trouble came, excepting those living in the Indian con- 
gregations, or being quartered at Bethlehem, to keep them away 
from dangerous associations. 

The case of Abraham, and several others like him in Wyo- 
ming, who were yet friendly towards the Brethren and not 
entirely renegade, even if they had broken away from the 
restraints of external discipline in a congregation, made it seem 
advisable at Bethlehem to have some one take up his abode 
in that precarious region as a kind of outer guard. The intention 
was that he should "go after the straying sheep," keep in 
friendly touch with those who might yet be held in restraint, watch 
the trend of things in order to send down timely information of 
important movements that should be known, and, at the same time, 
maintain a kind of lodge in the wilderness to break the long course 
of missionary journeys to points farther up. Several missionaries, 
especially Bernhard Adam Grube, had been visiting them. A 
request by Abraham, that a missionary again come to see them in 
Wyoming, offered the opportunity. The most suitable man for this 
particular undertaking was the intrepid and venturesome Frederick 
Post, and, the middle of February, he started off to assume that 
lonely and hazardous position. There he remained during the greater 
part of the year, until the time came when he had to flee for his life. 
Even this well-meant move, which placed a Christian missionary, 
taking his life into his hand, as a sentr}- beyond the boundaries of 
their settlements, to endeavor to preserve peace, was construed by 
suspicious persons between Bethlehem and the mountains, as a new 
evidence of Moravian complicity in dark intrigues. 

In the midst of these things, the authorities at Bethlehem, knowing 
how important it was that the government should correctly under- 
stand their position over-against the many Indians who came down 
to the place, and should have the benefit of whatever information 
came to them in this way, had made arrangements to promptly 
forward confidential reports to Philadelphia, by special messenger 
from Justice Horsfield, whenever there seemed to be occasion for 
doing so ; and to announce any considerable bands that arrived, their 
avowed object and all knowledge of affairs in the Indian country 
thus brought to them that seemed to deserve the attention of the 



302 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Governor. Therefore while persons, in their excitement, were taking 
stories to the authorities at Philadelpliia of the suspicious connection 
of the Moravians with ''strange Indians," the Brethren were at the 
very time serving the Government, b}' mutual understanding, as a 
bureau of information, without the knowledge of such persons and 
from sources that would never have been open to them. This, in 
general, was the state of Indian relations at Bethlehem when the 
startling announcement was brought by Scull on that Saturday morn- 
ing in July. 

The men at the head of affairs at Bethlehem had refrained from 
informing the inhabitants, to a needless extent, in reference to those 
critical factors of the situation which would merely occasion excite- 
ment and alarm without serving any practical purpose. All efforts 
were made to preserve quiet self-restraint, manly composure and 
simple trust in Him in whose Name they went and came and labored. 
When it was deemed necessary, information was given about matters 
of which all should have knowledge, and be ready to speak intelli- 
gently and discreetl}^ to people of the neighborhood or visitors with 
whom they conversed on the conditions of the time. Thus, early in 
January, the dangerous reports circulated and carried to England 
that the Germans of Pennsylvania were indifferent to English inter- 
ests and quite as ready to take the part of France ; and the address 
of the Germans of the Province to the Governor, contradicting this 
calumny, were discussed at Bethlehem. The question was considered 
whether the Brethren, as a distinct community, but also, for the 
most part, Germans, should make a like declaration of loyalty or 
quietly rest on the credit given them by the Act of Parliament in 
1749. They decided upon the latter course. Then special attention 
was drawn to this subject, in a general meeting, by Bishop Spangen- 
berg. He deemed it important to make the matter clear. He 
emphasized the favor received from the British government in that 
act, and drew attention to the various points of significance in the 
difference between bein" under English or French rule. He 
instructed the less en!ir,i;'.c"cd of the Germans at the place who 
might perhaps indulge in thoughtless or foolish remarks on the 
subject, not being Engii;'.:nen and not understanding the vital issues 
of the conflict, as to Vv'lr.t it all involved for the settlements of the 
Brethren and for their missionary work, and what the correct attitude 
of all should be to the question. So likewise, on June 19, when the 
day of fasting and prayer, in view of the almost calamitous injury to 



1755 1756. 303 

the grain crops of the Province and the dubious issues of the war, 
was observed, in compliance with the proclamation of Governor 
Morris, instruction on the position to be taken as Christians 
and loyal subjects was given in English and German sermons; the 
first by the Rev. Jacob Rogers, who was an Englishman, and the 
second by Bishop Matthew Hehl. It was thought that if those 
Brethren who needed information and guidance were in so far 
enlightened that there was no danger of any utterance on their part 
that could be construed to indicate sympathy with French interests, 
disloyalty to the government, or partisanship in the issues between 
Pennsylvania factions, this would be sufficient. The further subject 
of the relation of the Indian tribes to the war which was in progress, 
and the menace to the settlements that lay in the disafifection of so 
many of them who were being worked upon by the French, was 
treated with caution and reserve by the leading men at Bethlehem 
in speaking to the mass of the people. The reason for this was 
two-fold. They wished to avoid creating excitement and alarm, and to 
prevent the spread of that dread of and antipathy towards the Indians 
which possessed the people of the frontier generally; for this would 
quench the missionary spirit among the members of the Economy- 
would make them reluctant to labor for the support of the work and 
would render it more difficult to maintain the ground that had been 
gained and to pursue the important policy of friendly treatment 
towards those Indians who came to Bethlehem. Therefore, during 
the summer, the farmers and mechanics of Bethlehem and the 
Nazareth places, with the women and children, calmly followed their 
daily routine, quietly pursued their several tasks in field and work- 
shop, in dairy, spinning-room and school, and showed neither alarm 
nor aversion while band after band of Indians of all dispositions and 
descriptions came and loitered about and enjoyed their hospitality; 
some of them individuals whom there was reason enough to dread. 
In the midst of all this, as if it had been a time of the greatest 
peace and security, many acres of new land were grubbed, fenced 
and gotten ready for the plow; troops of boys worked happily in the 
new fields, collecting and burning the stumps and brush ; the water 
works were finished and successfully put into operation, to the delight 
of the town; the harvest was gathered and the harvest-home feast 
celebrated as usual ; the walls of Nazareth Hall were laid up ; mission- 
aries and mechanics traveled the accustomed road to Gnadenhuetten 
and back with that sturdv unconcern which was so hard for their 



304 A HISTORl' OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

neighbors to understand, accompanied frequently by Indians ; and 
the grist-mills of Bethlehem and Friedensthal "ran day and night" 
in August and September, to accommodate the large number of 
customers, "some from a distance of thirty miles beyond the Blue 
Mountains," compelled to come that long way by the drought that 
dried the lesser streams and left nearer mills idle and useless. 

Dismal was the fate that hung over many of the rude backwoods 
homes to which those men from the mountains returned with their 
bags of wheat and rye flour and cornmeal for the coming winter. 
It seemed as if the shadow of the black cloud had fallen upon many 
of them ahead of its approach, for they came and went with an air 
of anxious dread. It seemed as if the very autumn winds that blew 
down from the north and west, brought a scent of the blood-shed 
that was being plotted in the back regions. Rumors of terror, 
growing as they traveled, were rife. They were discussed around 
the mills by the men who waited for their grist, and were repeated to 
the millers and the workmen of Bethlehem and the Vale of Peace 
on the Bushkill. Questions were asked about Gnadenhuetten, some in 
anxiety, as if seeking re-assurance in regard to the trustworthiness 
of those Indians and their missionaries, others in a suspicious and 
insinuating tone, as if to ferret dark secrets out of the reticent and 
cautious Moravians. Thus the feeling of unrest and dread began to 
communicate itself to some of the more excitable and timorous at 
Bethlehem. 

The disturbing reports that had previously been coming to the 
Board at Bethlehem had not, as already stated, been circulated much, 
outside of official circles. Even before the news of the British defeat 
at Fort Duquesne had been received, rumors of such a disquieting 
nature had come from Wyoming that the board sent a message to 
Post, intimating that he had better abandon his efforts and leave 
the neighborhood. Shebosh had gone up, the last week in May, to 
look after his welfare, and at the beginning of June, Dr. Otto went 
to treat an injury he had received. At the middle of June, David 
Zeisberger, who a few days before had returned to Bethlehem with 
Carl Friederich from Onondago, where he had been sojourning 
nearly a year studying the language of the people, with a view to 
founding the mission long planned — he was prevented from returning 
by the outbreak of hostilities and that mission was never com- 
menced — went to Wyoming with Christian Seidel to see how Post 
fared. They found him keeping his lonely watch in the midst of 



1755 1756. 305 

great peril, sharing the dire need, next to starvation, that prevailed 
there, trying to maintain sympathetic relations with the Indians who 
had been enticed away from Gnadenhuetten, and to hold them from 
lapsing to the hostiles who were pledged to the French and who 
fiercely resented his presence and influence there; for, in accordance 
with the scheme of Teedyuscung, they hoped, by capturing this 
band, to make a further break, through them, in the congregation at 
Gnadenhuetten. 

Zeisberger and Seidel pushed on, far up the Susquehanna, to 
procure some food for this famishing little fiock of "straying sheep" 
and the faithful shepherd who was watching them at the hourly risk 
of his life. They made this effort not only as an act of humanity, but 
to impress the Indians with the conviction that their needs would be 
cared for if they remained together with Post and listened to his 
counsel. In reply to the message from Bethlehem, suggesting that 
he had better abandon his effort on account of the great peril. Post 
wrote, the middle of July, that "he did not propose to yield to the 
powers of darkness and the evil spirits to whom he was a hindrance, 
unless they expelled him b)' force." 

Having brought their few bags of corn safely to Post and the little 
band he was yet holding, Zeisberger and his companion continued 
their tour among the Indians at various places, in spite of the dis- 
turbed condition of things. While on this tour they heard of the 
first savage outbreak, October i6, on Penn's Creek, near Shamokin, 
where more than twenty persons were killed or captured. They 
turned their faces homeward the latter part of October, warned by 
Paxnous, who informed them of that first blow struck by the sav- 
ages. From Gnadenhuetten, where they found everything quiet and 
peaceful, they proceeded to the Delaware Gap, having intended to 
traverse the region beyond, to the north and east, more extensively. 
There they encountered a large company of militia-men who 
were much agitated by the reports they had heard, and plied the 
missionaries with questions. They and people in the vicinity had 
also heard of the alleged letter from a French officer — a rascally 
forgery — published in the newspapers, setting forth that the Mora- 
vians and their Indians were allies of the French, aiding their move- 
ments. This wicked trick, producing impressions that could not be 
followed up wherever the report spread with disproof or even authori- 
tative denial, had borne its fruit among the people up the Delaware ; 
and the impression of these calumnies was in the minds of some men 



30b A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

who came to the Bethlehem mill from that neighborhood in the 
course of the autumn. 

Zeisberger and Seidel reached Bethlehem in the night of Novem- 
ber 2. They at once reported to Justice Horsfield all that they had 
learned about the beginning of hostilities by the savages, and their 
statements were immediately forwarded by special messenger to the 
Governor and the Assembly; also the statements of George Bieb- 
inghausen, who, the previous day, arrived from Allemaengel, not 
very far from Gnadenhuetten — a Moravian station in the present 
Lynn Township of Lehigh County — that the people there were 
panic-stricken by rumors of an Indian raid, and that thirty persons 
had fled from their homes and taken refuge together in the Mora- 
vian school and meeting-house. On November 4, Henry Frey and 
Anton Schmidt set out from Bethlehem for Shamokin to rescue the 
missionary and master-smith, Marcus Kiefer, who had not, like his 
two companions, the missionary Godfrey Roessler and the black- 
smith Peter Wesa, made good his escape. These rescuers turned 
back at Tulpehocken, where all was in a state of terror, for they 
were assured that they would not be able to proceed. The panic at 
Allemaengel had not been without reason. Following upon a second 
raid made by the savages at the beginning of November, at the great 
cove in the present Franklin County, the Tulpehocken neighborhood 
was visited by skulking forerunners at this time, and, on November 
16, the first outbreak east of the Susquehanna occurred, when mur- 
derous gangs swooped down upon the farmers on the Swatara and 
Tulpehocken Creeks, killirLg thirteen persons and destroying much 
property. Thus the reign of terror opened in the region in which 
the savage raids were to be generaled by Teedyuscung. He had 
risen to the honor — suspected by many to have been quite imauthor- 
ized — of having himself called "King of the Delawares." The out- 
rages west of the Susquehanna were under the direction of Shingas 
"the terrible," a brother of Tamaqua. 

On November 6, Henry Frey started again, accompanied by the 
missionary John Jacob Schmick, for Wyoming, hoping to reach Sha- 
mokin by that route and find Kiefer. They returned on the 13th 
and reported him safe. He had gotten away from Shamokin, and, 
six miles from there, met two Indians whom Paxnous had dispatched 
to the place to rescue him. One of them was the son of the old chief 
and the other was a son of the Mohican Abraham. He had, mean- 
while, been protected by John Shikellimy or Thachnechtoris, son 



1755 1756. 307 

of the famous chief, old ShikelHmy. He escorted him safely to 
Gnadenhuetten, from which place they arrived at Bethlehem, 
November i6. With the arrival of these three men from Shamokin 
began the flight from various directions and distances to Bethlehem 
as a city of refuge. At one of the evening services during those 
weeks, Spangenberg took occasion to admonish two different kinds 
of people. On the one hand, he urged those who were becoming 
timid and uneasy to remain calm and clear-h'eaded and to be "strong 
in the Lord." On the other hand, some who, with perhaps a slight 
symptom of bravado, were disposed to over-estimate their security 
and, without realizing the peril that really existed, to make light of 
the trepidation manifested by people of the neighborhood who came 
to Bethlehem, were admonished that they should appreciate the 
cause these scattered settlers had for being alarmed, sympathize 
with them and try to encourage them. 

On November 20, came the first company of frightened people 
from the Saucon Valley, who had heard reports of the approach of 
hostile Indians. Some of them were given quarters for the night 
at the Crown Inn. That night guards were quietly stationed at 
three approaches to the town, not in fear of a surprise by Indians 
at this time, but as a precaution against a panic that might be cre- 
ated in the town by a possible inrush of terror-stricken people, 
sounding an alarm. The next day a company of persons who had 
been at Gnadenhuetten returned, bringing a letter from the mis- 
sionary IMartin Mack. He, with Shebosh and the missionaries Grube 
and Schmick, was stationed with the Indian congregation at its new 
quarters on the east side of the Lehigh, New Gnadenhuetten, where 
the more satisfactory tract of land had been purchased for the 
Indians. As previously stated, the other men and women connected 
with the industries of that settlement, and engaged in the study of 
Indian languages, occupied the mission houses of the original village 
on the west side. In that letter Mack wrote that the entire neigh- 
borhood was in a state of excitement on account of the "French 
Indians," that many of the settlers had fled to Allemaengel and that 
some of those Indians were trying to create a panic and stampede 
among the Gnadenhuetten Indians, but that the most of the men 
were of? hunting. He quoted in his letter the savings of several of 
the sturdiest Christian men among the Indians at Gnadenhtietten, in 
reference to the critical situation, their expressions of trust in the 
Saviotir, if the worst should come, and their declaration that thev 



308 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

would cling together and, if so it must be, die together. This letter 
from Mack was read to the congregation at Bethlehem by Spangen- 
berg on the evening of that day, November 21, and the next day 
was communicated to Parsons at Easton by Horsfield, as the first 
note of danger for the Forks of the Delaware. While this little 
band of converts were thus giving expression to Christian resigna- 
tion and considering the likelihood of their being murdered by the 
"French Indians" when all efforts to draw them away proved fruit- 
less, the latter were planning to not only do this, but also to 
wreak vengeance upon their missionaries, to whose influence they 
ascribed the steadfastness of the Gnadenhuetten Indians in with- 
standing every attempt to cajole, bribe or bully them into joining 
the conspiracy. At the same time, men from the Irish Settlement 
were coming into Bethlehem with reports of how the people feared 
being suddenly fallen upon by those same inoffensive Indians at 
the mission ; how some were planning to destroy the mission as a 
measure of self-defense, and how there was talk among some Jer- 
seymen of even taking revenge by raising troops of rangers to move 
upon Bethlehem, the supposed harbor of French allies, white and 
Indian, and storage-place of arms and ammunition for the savages. 
What human power of word or deed could rectify such an awful 
complication as this with hundreds of lives jeopardized in its mazes? 
How was it possible to convince such men in the panic of the time, 
with this belief about the Moravians firmly fixed in their minds for 
years, that they were completely and terribly mistaken? What was 
to save Bethlehem when the storm should break? Earnest, well- 
disposed men came and asked, why is it that your people rest quietly 
and do not seem afraid? Tell us, and explain this mystery, if you 
have not an understanding with the French and with the blood- 
thirsty hordes in their service. Spangenberg simply answered : 
"The people are quiet because they set their hope in their God, 
knowing no refuge under such circumstances but in Him ; and as 
He has counted all the hairs on our heads, not one of them shall 
be permitted to fall without His will." He felt that a time had come 
for the Moravians to supremely demonstrate that they believed what 
they professed and taught and to let God take care of the result. It 
is recorded how one went away convinced of the truth and begged 
permission to bring his family to Bethlehem if the time came when 
thev must flee. 



1755 1756. 309 

Even some who had been sure that the Moravians were on terms 
of understanding with the French and the murderous savages, were 
open to conviction to the contrary, right in the panic of those days, 
when it was not easy to reason with excited men. The next day, 
Sunday, November 23, when in storm and rain, scores of famiUes 
were fleeing from their homes between Betlilehem and Gnaden- 
huetten, and not only expressions of fear and distrust, but even 
maledictions were heard among persons gathered at Easton, 
who spoke of the Indians harbored by the Moravians, David Zeis- 
berger, who was at the county-seat in the interest of certain peace- 
able Indians of Wyoming who desired some kind of a safe conduct 
to Philadelphia to deliver a message to the Governor, rendered an 
opportune service. He had an interview there with a number of 
men from New Jersey, who were among those who had been firmly 
persuaded of the treachery of the Moravians and their Indians, and 
had been drawn to Easton by the publication of Horsfield's mes- 
sage to Parsons. Their comment upon his statements and explana- 
tions was : "This is the first sensible account of the case we have 
heard, and even if the Brethren will not take up arms they can secure 
their own lives (against mobs of avenging white men) by giving out 
reliable information." The policy of silence usually pursued by the 
Brethren mystified many. While, in the main, it was undoubtedly 
the best, it had its limits, and possibly they carried it too far. Plain, 
blunt men, such as those Jerseymen probably were, do not take 
kindly to an imperturbable silence when they are wanting to know 
the truth of a matter about which their minds are exercised. And 
yet, the sublime conviction that the case could best be left in the 
hands of God, for the results to work out and the truth to appear 
in His way, was vindicated in the end. 

There was much anxiety at this time about that stout-hearted 
ranger of the missionary force, Frederick Post, who had been defy- 
ing "the powers of darkness" in his lonely hut in the Wyoming wil- 
derness ; for now it was known that in that region those powers 
were holding grim carnival, and no white man could live there. He 
knew, however, when the moment had come beyond which it would 
be sheer folly for him to remain. He had acquired much of the 
Indian instinct and method in his movements. Suddenly, when two 
strange Indians with questionable motives were endeavoring to find 
him, he had disappeared without a word to any one as to where he 
was going. This was all that was known about him at Bethlehem — 



3IO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

reported from trustworthy sources — until November 22, when it was 
learned that he had safely reached Dansbury, the Brodhead settle- 
ment, where at this time Jasper Payne was stationed. Payne was 
the last who ministered in the little church built there under the 
special patronage of Justice Daniel Brodhead, who had died at Beth- 
lehem in July. It was dedicated May 19, 1753. Payne and Post, 
like so many people of the neighborhood, had to flee from the place 
in December and the little church was burned to the ground by the 
savages. Post reached Bethlehem on November 25. 

In the afternoon of that dismal, rainy Sunday, November 23, 
upwards of seventy armed and mounted men from New Jersey sud- 
denly arrived at the Crown Inn, not for the purpose of destroying 
Bethlehem, as the talk of some had been shortly before, but to offer 
their services in defense of the place and of the Irish Settlement, 
as there might be need ; very positive expectation of an intended 
attack by the savages having been awakened through the spread 
of Mack's letter beyond the Delaware. Justice Horsfield informed 
them that there was not thought to be any immediate peril at Beth- 
lehem, and officially arranged for them to remain at the Crown over 
night, in order to prevent the consternation that would be caused by 
their sudden appearance in the streets of Bethlehem. The nerves 
of invalids and of timid women were considered, and the greatest 
care was being taken to prevent all knowledge of the terrors of the 
time from reaching the children, both at Bethlehem and at Naza- 
reth. 

November 24 was a day of noise and confusion such as had 
never been experienced at Bethlehem, with sights that seemed very 
strange in its quiet streets. All day armed men marched through 
from different parts of New Jersey and some of the lower neighbor- 
hoods of Pennsylvania, on horseback and afoot, with drums and 
flags, intending to scour the woods in the direction of Gnadenhuet- 
ten in search of hostile Indians. It was hoped that some detach- 
ments of the murderous hordes might be encountered and repulsed, 
and their further advance thus be checked. David Zeisberger, with 
the knowledge of the militia captains, mounted a horse and started 
for Gnadenhuetten ahead of the rangers, to deliver Horsfield's mes- 
sage to Mack in reference to the desired convoy to Bethlehem, to 
inform the Indian congregation of this expedition and instruct them 
to remain quietly in their houses, so that they would not be found 
outside in the woods and mistaken for savages. He was stopped 
on the way by a company of excited Irishmen, who took it for 



1755 1756. 3" 

granted that he was bound for the hostile camps to give the alarm 
to the "French Indians" and frustrate the purpose of the militia- 
men, and thought that they had at last caught one of the Moravian 
traitors in the very act. Zeisberger's coolness and tact, which 
seemed never to forsake him in any emergency, together with that 
impressive power of conscious innocence which often turns the sen- 
timents, even of the most bitter and excited men, served him well, 
as it had before and later did in far more critical straits. He was 
finally permitted to ride on, but the detention involved great peril 
for the Indian congregation. 

Evening was coming on when he reached the mission. Having 
delivered his letters to Mack, he immediately turned his course to 
the river, to cross before it became quite dark, intending to rest over 
night at the establishment on the Mahoning, on the other side, after 
delivering his messages there. He had heard gun-shots west of the 
river as he approached the mission, but did not suspect anything 
amiss, for, with squads of militia now traversing the woods and 
occasionally firing signals to other bands, this was not a particu- 
larly startling sound that day. Suddenly a piteous cry from the 
other shore came to the missionaries on the east side who had just 
taken leave of Zeisberger. Shebosh instantly pushed a canoe into 
the water and directly returned, bringing Joachim Sensemann and 
George Partsch, with the horrible tidings that the savages had fallen 
upon the settlement and, as they supposed, murdered the rest of 
the household. Then the rising flames began to light up the gloam- 
ing with a sickening evidence of the fiendish work that was being 
done. Zeisberger had meanwhile slowly made his way to the ford, 
and was crossing the stream. The nearer noise of the splashing 
water and the crack of the stones under his horse's hoofs prevented 
him from hearing the shooting and yelling of the savages, broken 
by the thick underbrush of the river-bank and the bluff beyond, 
which also concealed from him the light of the starting flames. 
Mack called to him several times at the top of his voice, but did not 
succeed in attracting his attention until he had reached the other 
side. A moment he paused and with dismay took in the awful situ- 
ation, just as young Joseph Sturgis, who had escaped with a slight 
wound on his face, rushed gasping down to the river. Turning 
about, he forded back to the east side. There a consultation was 
held in the anxious suspense of the hour. The Indians, who gath- 
ered about Martin Mack in terror asking what they should do — 



312 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

many of the younger men were yet off on their fall hunt — were 
advised by him to quietly disperse and conceal themselves in the 
thick woods ; for it was taken for granted that an attack upon the 
buildings on that side would soon follow. Sturgis had slipped away 
into the forest. 

Zeisberger gathered what particulars could be given him by Sen- 
semann and Partsch, and, with these and Mack's official message, 
set out in the darkness to make his way with all the speed 
his tired horse could command, back to Bethlehem. His dreary 
midnight ride was broken by a brief interview with some of the 
militia rangers of the previous day whom he met on the road. He 
told them what had taken place, and their first impression was 
expressed in the declaration that this appalling fate of the 
Moravians at Gnadenhuetten proved their innocence of com- 
plicity with the savages in the interest of the French. Thus 
he could carry back, with his tale of woe, also the first 
evidence of good to come out of this great evil. He had not 
many details to report. The household of sixteen persons, fifteen 
adults and one infant, excepting two who were not well — Sense- 
mann's wife, who had remained in the room set apart for the women, 
and Peter Worbas, single, who was in another building in which 
the unmarried men had their quarters — were gathered at the table 
in the general dwelling and guest-house, partaking of their evening 
meal. The barking of the dogs and a sound as of persons approach- 
ing the premises, led Sensemann, who was steward, to go out for 
the purpose of locking the doors of the main building in which the 
chapel was, and making things secure for the night. He saw no 
one, and entered the building. Hardly had he struck a light, when 
he heard a loud report of firearms. He, like Zeisberger, thought 
the shooting was done by a company of militia who had passed sev- 
eral hours before, and were expected back to spend the night there, 
and paid no attention to it. Having locked the door, he started to 
return to where the others were, when he was met by Partsch, who 
announced that Indians had rushed upon the house and were shoot- 
ing at the inmates, and that he had escaped through a window. 
Sensemann proposed that they make an effort to rescue the women, 
and they turned towards the house, but it was entirely surrounded 
by the savage troop and they, being unarmed, could do nothing 
more than make their escape and sound an alarm at the mission, 
east of the Lehigh. The setting fire to the house followed after they 
fled and the presumption with which Zeisberger started for Bethle- 



1755 1756. 313 

hem was that all, excepting these two men and young Joseph Stur- 
gis, whom he had seen, had perished by the bullets or tomahawks 
of the murderers or in the flames. At three o'clock on the morning 
of the 25th he reached Bethlehem, aroused Bishop Spangenberg and 
told him the horrible story. Whether any others were immediately 
informed of it does not appear in the narratives. A messenger was 
sent to Parsons at Easton about two hours later. 

In the early dawn of that sad November morning the people of 
Bethlehem were summoned, by the ringing of the bell, to morning 
prayer as usual, this being the first thing each day. Spangenberg 
had, according to custom, opened the book of daily texts to see what 
the watchword of the day was, and he found a peculiar significance 
in it that gave him a starting-point from which to begin the service 
and the morning words to the people in the usual manner, prepara- 
tory to breaking the mournful news. "Joseph made himself 

strange unto them and spake roughly unto them."^ And his breth- 
ren, not recognizing him under the temporary disguise of this harsh 
exterior, said to Jacob their father, "the man spake roughly unto 
us." Thus, said Spangenberg, our Lord sometimes deals roughly 
with us and makes Himself strange, but we know His heart. ^ A pecu- 
Har impression was felt — an apprehension of something momentous — 
as he looked about the congregation, and his voice quivered with 
pent-up emotion. Then the announcement of the tragedy was made 
and tearful supplications went up to the darkly veiled throne of grace. 
Many a one's early meal was left untouched in Bethlehem that morn- 
ing, and the day was one of mourning. Another thing Spangenberg 
said at that morning service : "Our neighborhood can now see that 
the Brethren are not allied with the French, for we have been in such 
danger for several days of being fallen upon by a mob that they 
have quite openly said, 'before we move upon the enemy, we must 
not leave one stone upon another in Bethlehem.' The Justice, our 
Brother Horsfield, has been a real martyr, for he could not convince 
all of the people that our remaining so quiet in the midst of the 
tumult that fills the whole land did not signify that we had an under- 
standing with the French." 

Those slain on the Mahoning were verily martyrs, destined, 
in the mysterious ways of God, who made Himself strange 
unto them and spake roughly unto them," to bear the con- 

= Genesis 42 : 7 and 30. 

3 ^'Der Mann stelU sick hart, abcr w?r kenneii sein Ilerz."' Tins last clause was the line 
of a hymn-verse accompanying the text in the book. 



314 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM PENNSYLVANIA. 

victing testimony to men who refused to be convinced by lesser 
proof. In some sense and degree, their blood was vicarious 
blood. It had to wash out the cruel calumny which excited preju- 
dice, incapable of understanding the Moravians, persisted in writing 
on the bulletin board of public sensation, and it became the sprinkled 
blood on the lintels and door-posts of Bethlehem to stay the destroy- 
ing hand of men, maddened by the fiendish atrocities perpetrated 
upon their homes, who might otherwise have taken vengeance upon 
the Moravians, as friends of the Indians. When the murderous hand 
of the savages was to be lifted against Bethlehem, God stayed that 
hand, for He had chosen the place as a city of refuge to which many 
who escaped might flee from the fields, where one was taken and 
another left. The most obtuse mind could be expected to compre- 
hend, when the massacre on the Mahoning became known, that the 
savages would not fall upon those who were secretly working with 
them, and murder them. They thus took revenge upon the Mora- 
vians for standing in their way with that settlement at the mountain 
gate-way, and foiling their attempts to secure the co-operation of 
those converts. After this, the repetition of the old slander — and, 
although common opinion among suspecting masses was suddenly 
and powerfully changed, it was repeated by some, even after this — 
could no longer be charitably ascribed to mere ignorance about the 
Moravians. It now became criminal malice. 

In the course of the day, on that 25th of November, one after 
another arrived from the scene of carnage, like the messengers of 
Job coming in to tell of the ruin wrought where Satan's hand was 
permitted to fall. From one after the other, further particulars were 
learned. About seven o'clock the first fugitive arrived ; Peter Wor- 
bas, who at first had watched the horrible scenes from the room 
of the single men in another building. Although ill, he had trudged 
the long distance to Bethlehem afoot. He could not tell much more 
than was known. He saw one of the women flee to the cellar, out- 
side the house, and back into the "sisters' room," pursued by a 
savage with uplifted tomahawk. He heard the heart-rending 
screams of an infant amid the crackling of the flames. For some 
time he was a prisoner, a guard being posted at the door. A shout 
from the other savages diverting the attention of his guard, he 
leaped from the window towards the Mahoning and fled. On the 
way to Bethlehem he heard of the escape of Sturgis. Anton Schmidt 
and Marcus Kiefer, who, at Shamokin, had become veterans in fac- 
ing the dangers of savage surroundings, were soon dispatclied to 



1755 '756. 315 

Gnadenhuetten to ascertain how matters stood there, and to take 
a message from Justice Horsfield to the mihtia gathered at that 
point, stating that provisions would be sent tliem if needed. Span- 
genberg, meanwhile, went to Nazareth to make the sorrowful 
announcement there, and institute the first steps towards guarding 
against a surprise b)' the savages. There, when he undertook to 
speak again of what had taken place, his composure forsook him. 
He broke down under the strain and for a while could only weep. 

In the afternoon Sensemann came, bringing about thirty of the 
Gnadenhuetten Indians, all completely exhausted by their hard 
experiences. While making his way through the woods towards 
Bethlehem, he came upon this little band cowering in their place 
of concealment, and brought them along. All that Sensemann could 
relate was already known through Zeisberger. 

Later in the day Martin Mack arrived with his wife, Grube and 
his wife, Schmick and Joseph Powell and his wife, who had been 
temporarily at the station on the east side, and more of the fugitive 
Indians. Mack was almost broken-hearted. Gnadenhuetten had 
been very dear to him. He had devoted himself to that mission from 
the beginning with all his heart, and he felt as a father towards the 
converts who were singularly attached to him. The colony of men 
and women who occupied the original buildings on the west side of 
the river had trusted his counsel and leadership when the time of 
peril came. He had encouraged them to stand quietly and manfully 
at their post. They had done so, and now they had fallen at that 
post, and he was spared. He was overwhelmed with sorrow. The 
entire Indian congregation of seventy persons gradually found their 
way to Bethlehem. Here they were sheltered in the "Indian house" 
and were cared for, regardless of the risk their presence might 
entail upon Bethlehem when the unreasoning excitement of some in 
whose eyes all Indians were alike, was stirred anew Ijy the discovery 
that they were housed there. It put a strain even upon the confidence 
and good will of some of the Bethlehem people, under the poignant 
grief they felt for the awful fate that had befallen their brethren and 
sisters on the Mahoning ; all on account of Indians and at the hands 
of Indians ; and under the growing dread of an attack upon Beth- 
lehem, which might the more quickly be provoked by the presence 
of these people whom the savages were now bent upon killing, since 
they could not entice them. It even became necessary for Span- 
genberg, a few weeks later, to plead with such openly, to not permit 



3l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

aversion and bitterness to possess their hearts towards these poor 
creatures snatched as a brand from the burning; the remaining fruit 
of many labors, prayers and tears. 

In the afternoon of November 26, Partsch and, his wife Susanna 
reached Bethlehem. It was not known whether he had escaped or 
not, after he and Sensemann parted, and his wife was supposed to be, 
of course, among the victims. Young Sturgis came with them. They 
brought the fullest details of the horrible massacre. After Sense- 
mann had gone out to lock the door, as related by him, the barking 
of the dogs increased and footsteps were heard about the house. 
Sturgis, followed by several of the other men, arose from the table 
and opened the door, supposing that the expected militia men were 
coming. There, before the door, stood some of the murderous 
savages, ready for the attack. Instantly they fired, and Martin 
Nitschmann fell dead, while a bullet grazed the face of Joseph Sturgis 
who was nearest to the door. Another volley quickly followed, and 
John Lesley, John Gattermeyer and Martin Presser fell. Presser, 
as was discovered some months later, was not instantly killed, but 
was able to creep from the house and find his way to the woods 
nearby, where he succumbed to his wound.'' 

Martin Nitschmann's wife, Susanna, was next wounded by a ball. 
She was seen to fall and her cry, "O brethren! brethren! help me!" 
was heard. That was the last then known of her, and it was supposed 
that she had perished by a tomahawk or in the flames. She was 
evidently dragged out of the house when the remaining inmates fled 
to the garret, and, as was afterwards learned, she was taken captive 
by the murderers.' 

4 April 29, 1756, Stephen Blum, who had carried an order from (he Governor to Captain 
Carl Volck, Commandant of Fort Allen, built where the New Gnadenhuetten of the Indians 
had been, on the east side of the river, the site of Weissport — Volck was a member of the 
Moravian congregation at AUemaengel — returned to Bethlehem and reported that the pre- 
vious week the soldiers had found a corpse in a dense thicket at the " sand spring," not 
scalped but shot in the right side, and that the man had died lying upon his back wilh his 
hands folded. The Captain had the body buried by the militia, and sang as a committal 
service the verse : &7«' Angen. Seinen Mimd, Den Leih fur imt venvumi't, etc., (from the 
Easter Morning Litany). The body was identified by the clothing as that of Presser. 

5 July 19, 1756, her fate was publicly announced at Bethlehem, when reliable information 
brought by Joachim, a baptized Indian, who had been up on the Susquehanna, confirmed 
previous reports. She was taken first to Wyoming by the savages, and almost jierishod from 
cold on the way. There several of the colony of baptized Indians, who had withdrawn the 
previous year from Gnadenhuetten, and were living there yet in the turmoil, recognized her 



1/55 1756. 317 

Those who succeeded in reaching the dormitory in the garret closed 
and secured the trap-door, so that their pursuers could not force 
it open. This remnant of the household were Gottlieb Anders, his 
wife Johanna Christina and their infant daughter Johanna ; Susanna 
Louisa, wife of George Partsch ; Anna Catherine, wife of Joachim 
Sensemann ; George Christian Fabricius, George Schweigert and 
Joseph Sturgis. Sensemann's wife sank down upon the edge of a 
bed and simpl)^ exclaimed, "Dear Saviour, this is what I expected!" 
The wife of Anders, with her wailing infant wrapped in her apron 
and clasped to her heart, expressed onl)' a mother's anguish for 
her child. There they passed an awful quarter of an hour, listening 
to the yells of the savage troop and the shots fired at random through 
the window, the roof and the floor. One and another of the prisoners 
screamed for help at intervals, in the faint hope that rescuers might 
approach and hear that they were yet alive. Then there was a lull in 
the shooting; the yells ceased for a brief space, and no one was seen 
by those who peered out of the garret window. For the moment the 
attention of the demons was absorbed in their final most fiendish plan. 
Soon the crackling of the flames told the victims what they might now 
expect. Sturgis seized this opportunity to leap from the window, 
landed safely and got away. Susanna Partsch immediately followed 
him and also escaped. The third and last to make the attempt was 
Fabricius, as appeared from the discoveries made the next day. The 
window was now again watched, and he did not escape. The 
remaining four with the little child evidently perished in the flames. 

Susanna Partsch was unfamiliar with the surroundings, having been 
at the place a week only and did not know vifhich way to take in the 
darkness. She secreted herself for some time behind a tree, at an 
elevated spot near the main building, where she could watch the 
movements of the murderers. She saw them set fire to one building 
after another; first the barn, then the kitchen and bakery, then the 
single men's dwelling, after that the store and last of all, with some 
difficulty, the main building containing the chapel — the Gemcmhaus, 

as a Moravian sister. The first was Sarah, the wife of Abraham the Mohican, who threw 
up her hands in consternation when she saw her Another woman, Abigail, wife of Benja- 
min was permitted to care for her wants in her own hut, until her brutal captor dragged her 
off to Tioga. There she passed her days in constant weeping and sank into a dazed con- 
dition of deep melancholy ; Joachim saw her and spoke with her, and had definite infor- 
mation of her death at Tioga. The Indian who led the attack on the Mahoning and took 
possession of her as his prize, was killed in August, 1757, by another Indian under the 
accusation of having acted as a French spy at the treaty in Easton. 



3l8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The store was first looted, then all eatables found in kitchen, bakery 
and spring-house were collected and the savages had a feast by the 
light of the conflagration. There were estimated to be about twelve 
of them. About midnight, as nearly as the trembling watcher could 
judge, they gathered up the plunder secured in the store and set out 
towards Wyoming. Then this almost distracted woman, left alone 
at the desolate place, made her way down to the river where she came 
to a large hollow tree within which she took refuge until daylight, 
when rescuers arrived. 

Partsch had found his way during the night to a house in the 
Blue Mountains, where he fell in with Sturgis. Early in the morning 
they returned to the Mahoning with some rangers. He was nerved 
by a presentiment that his wife had escaped. When they got across 
the Lehigh, they suddenly came upon her, crouched in her place of 
concealment, almost benumbed with cold and fright. They went on 
to explore the scene of desolation. All the buildings were burned 
down, and the charred remains of some who had there perished 
could be seen but not distinguished. Outside, in the square, they 
came upon the body of Fabricius, pierced with bullets, scalped and 
mutilated, and watched over by the only living friend that remained 
at the spot, his dog. The savages, after finishing their atrocious 
work, left a blanket with a hat and a knife stuck through them on 
a stump, as a defiant warning of more of the like to follow. 
Exhausted and sickened, Partsch and his wife and Sturgis set out 
on their sorrowful journey to Bethlehem. 

Amid the deserted cabins on the east side, only Shebosh remained 
a while to watch for any members of the Indian congregation who 
might yet be hiding near-by and, seeing him there, might venture 
to approach. On November 27, Anton Schmidt returned from the 
Mahoning where, with the assistance of some neighbors, he had 
hastily made a coffin in which he placed the body of Fabricius, with 
such charred remains of the others as he could collect, and buried 
it in a corner of the garden, where the little cemetery of the place 
had been opened." 

6 The foregoing narrative is compiled from a careful collation of all extant original 
accounts, correcting inaccuracies of some of the many printed accounts, supplying some 
points lacking in others, and giving all the authentic particulars that would be found by exam- 
ining all of them. This massacre ended Indian mission work there. The place lay neglected 
until 1771, when it became the center of a white congregation, composed of niembers of 
the two defunct congregations, AUemaengel (note 4) and Sichem, Duchess County, N. Y., 



I7S5 i7S6. 319 

The remaining weeks of that year were a period of much anxiety 
at Bethlehem and those who were at the head of affairs and respon- 
sible for the poHcy and measures adopted were under a severe 
strain. Each succeeding day revealed more clearly the great peril 
in which the settlement, with the stations on the Nazareth land, 
stood, especially the most exposed outposts, Friedensthal and the 
Rose Inn. At these Moravian places the dam would have to be built 
to hold back the devastating flood, if it was not to rush down unhin- 
dered over the entire lower country. Between this point and Phila- 
delphia there was not another place at which a sufficient population 
could be concentrated, with the same degree of order and self-pos- 
session, of unity and discipline, to' make a stand and present a front 
against the savage on-rush. Above these places no power or even 
show of resistance remained. There was no rallying-ground for the 
people, no spot at which there was even enough of a compact mass 
of buildings to suggest the centering of any strength. When the 
reign of terror opened along the Blue Mountains, the people who 
escaped rushed, utterly demoralized and panic-stricken, down the 
country, and the Moravian places were the first at which there 
seemed enough prospect of being able to stand, to make it worth 
while to stop. Therefore, the extreme importance of baffling the 

the region of the original Indian mission which furnished the nucleus of Gnadenhuetten in 
1746. In 1783 the first recorded formal attention was paid to the grave of these martyrs, 
when that white congregation gathered around it to observe the Easter matins. In 17S6, 
the Rev. John Frederick Moehring, minister there, addressed the executive authorites at 
Bethlehem in reference to placing a memorial stone on the spot — a thing spoken of before. 
Finally, on December 10, 17SS. the slab that yet lies there, with its simple but impressive 
inscription was placed on the grave. The monument at the head of it was provided through 
the exertions of descendants of Martin and Susanna Nitschmann, and set in place, August 
7, 1848, the centennial anniversary of the first Indian interment at Gnadenhuetten. The 
credit for again rescuing the sacred spot from oblivion, more than thirty years after the 
dissolution of the white congregation of Gnadenhuetten, belongs mainly to the late Joseph 
Leibert, of Bethlehem, whose wife was a grand-daughter of the Nitschmanns. 

With brief biographical sketches of those martyrs appended to the Bethlehem diary for 
November, 1755, is a parentation or elegy in Latin, by Christian Wedsted, the companion 
of the gifted Fabricius, who went with him to Gnadenhuetten, June 28, 1754, to study 
Indian languages. The composition is entitled: 

In Fratres Sororesque 

beatae memoriae 

quos ut sacrificium pro nobis 

Salvator noster Deusque, T. O. M. 

Sibi Mahoniae offerri passus est. 

Die xxiv, Nov. cblacclv. 



320 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

savages at these points, which had now become the frontier posts, 
was reaHzed. At Easton there was less at that time to inspire con- 
fidence among the panic-stricken refugees from the upper country, 
or to offer resistance. If the savages broke through the Moravian 
Hnes, there seemed to be nothing left, as some expressed it, but to 
"rush on before them into the sea, for the water was preferable to 
the tomahawk, the scalping-knife and the torch." And yet there 
were, at the time of the outbreak, probably not fifty guns among all 
the Moravians at Bethlehem and Nazareth combined. Some of the 
Moravian wood-men and farmers went hunting occasionally, not for 
sport — they had no time for that — but to supplement their provision- 
store in seasons of scarcity; and guns were sometimes taken along 
on journeys through the forest to secure needed food. Beyond this 
they had no use for fire-arms. 

The people from the mountains who fled to the Moravians for refuge 
did not come supplied with arms and ammunition. They came empty- 
handed, hungry, many of them half naked — men without coats or 
hats, women and children who had rushed from their beds at dead of 
night, many with only the clothing they slept in and blankets or quilts 
hastily thrown around them, some bare-footed. These people knew, 
furthermore, that the Moravians were "not fighting people," that 
they deprecated warfare and would have nothing to do with military 
drill. It was the talk of the country, and many a jest on the subject, 
at their expense, had excited merriment around the fires of back- 
woods cabins, even while the wicked stories about their secreting 
arms and ammunition for the use of the "French Indians" were 
discussed, without appreciating the inconsistency of laying these 
incongruous things to their charge at the same time. 

What course should now be pursued b}' the Moravian leaders in 
this dire exigency? Here was a body of men trained only to peaceful 
thoughts and employments ; a large number of defenceless women 
quartered in several buildings ; a host of helpless, innocent children 
to be protected; troops of terror-stricken people from the back 
country rushing in to seek refuge with them ; the fate of extensive 
regions in the lower countr}' turning upon the question whether the 
fiendish hordes on the war-path could be kept behind Bethlehem and 
Nazareth or not. Either of two extremes could be taken. One was 
to abandon the principles they had been cultivating, cast their 
profession of trust in God to the winds under a severe test, as mere 
"fair-weather talk," and let the demoralized people about them 



1755 1756. 321 

conclude that there was nothing back of it at last, by turning Bethle- 
hem into a fort and centering the militia here as headquarters, and 
then perhaps go back to their principles when danger was past. 
The other extreme was to pursue the course of fatuous fanaticism ; 
load no guns, adopt no measures of defence, post no guards, and 
simply say we are the Lord's people and He will protect us. Some 
expected and urged them to do the first. Others supposed they would 
do the second, because they regarded them as religious fanatics and 
could not understand their principles to mean anything else than 
this. The Moravians were too sincere and consistent to pursue the 
first course, and had better mettle than to be stampeded into suddenly 
tvirning the town into a garrison in the panic. On the other hand, 
they had too much sense to pursue the other course. They were not 
fanatics, but intelligent men who could combine religion and com- 
mon-sense. 

We are not "Kricgcrisch" (disposed to fight). We are not "Qudker- 
isch" (of Quaker mind). This in homely, laconic style, expressed 
their position at that juncture. They would not organize for aggres- 
sive activity against the savages, but, on the other hand, they would 
not fail to adopt every measure required to defend the town, and, if 
it came to the most desperate pass, would, of course, resort to arms 
to protect those who were dependent upon them. They thought, too, 
that, as things were, they would do all that could be expected in 
merely maintaining a defence. They were sufficiently clear and well- 
balanced in their conception of the relative importance of the several 
classes of religious scruples, principles and duties, to realize that 
singling out not taking up arms, as the one supreme standard, to be 
stubbornly held under all circumstances, could in some emergencies 
be regarded as not only fanaticism but criminal folly, as much as 
if a man refused to take active measures against a conflagration, out 
of religious scruples. They were, moreover, not housed in com- 
fortable homes, at a safe distance from the imperiled frontiers, as 
were most of those who in the Assembly were delaying the legislation 
needed to provide for adequate defences and, with exasperating 
calmness, saying, "I told you so," when the tales of horror began to 
come in ; or, what was yet more trying to the harassed people on the 
frontiers, as well as to those in Philadelphia who clamored for harbor 
defences, were, under the lead of astute politicians, employing dilatory 
tactics and quibbhng about the formalities and technicalities of pro- 
cedure, in order to press concessions from the Proprietary govern- 



322 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ment under the strain of this extremity, on quite other and more 
remote questions, while they and the Governor went on wrangHng, 
each trying to make the situation of advantage against the other. 
The Moravians were facing the storm on the frontier with the men 
who were besieging the Assembly with demands for defence. They 
did not share the feeling, but had as much reason to as many who 
expressed it, that they would Hke to force the parties in the Assembly 
who were pursuing this course to move up on the frontier between 
their homes and the savages. 

Even in this matter, the Moravian blood that was shed on the 
Mahoning was a sacrifice for the public good, for it expedited the 
official action that was so urgently needed. On that very day, 
November 24, on which the massacre occurred, Governor Morris 
sent a message to the Assembly announcing a donation of £5000 
from the Proprietaries in England for the benefit of Pennsylvania, 
sent upon the receipt of his communication to them in reference to 
the probable effects of the disaster to the British forces in July. With 
this announcement he said to the Assembly: "Upon this occasion, 
gentlemen, I must again recommend to you to lay aside all disputes 
and to grant such supplies in addition to what the Proprietaries have 
given, as his Majesty's service and the present exigencies of the 
Province require." The same day a remonstrance was addressed by 
the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of Philadelphia to the 
Assembly, urging them in the strongest terms to "postpone all 
disputes to a more seasonable time," and to grant the necessary 
supplies and "pass a reasonable law in order to collect and regulate 
the force of the Province for repelling the present cruel invasion." 
This donation from the Proprietaries did much to further action, for 
an equivalent in lieu of taxes on the Proprietary estates — the chronic 
subject of controversy — was now made available in a manner which 
enabled the Proprietaries to maintain, for the time being, their 
contention and constrained the Assembly to waive theirs. Yet the 
latter pursued a method humiliating to the Governor. They made 
the disbursement of funds voted by them so specific that the Gover- 
nor could not, as some professed to think he would, under the general 
head of the public service, divert any of the sum to salary and other 
expenses, which the Assembly was withholding in the quarrel. They 
also put the administration of such funds into the hands of Commis- 
sioners nominated by them and not into the hands of the Governor. 
The sensitive pride of the Governor might again have proved an 



1755 1756. 323 

obstruction, for he was disposed to withhold his signature from the 
Assembly's bill, appropriating i6o,ooo for defences, on account of 
this affront to him as Proprietary representative. Just at this point, 
the blood of the martyrs on the Mahoning cried to him to let this 
pass and to occasion no further delay. Justice Horsfield's letter to 
Justice Parsons of Easton, Proprietary agent, announcing the 
massacre, forwarded by Parsons, with a pathetic appeal for help in 
the great distress, to Secretary Peters, came before the Governor 
and Council on November 26, at the very session in which they had 
the Assembly's bill under consideration. The offence taken at the 
mode of procedure and the form of the bill was noted, but, in 
consideration of the "distressed state of the Province" and "the 
imminent danger" it was concluded to suggest to the Governor to 
sign it without further ado, and through Peters, he signified to the 
Assembly his readiness to do so. He signed it the next day, and thus 
the important action, upon which the possibility to do anything for 
the defence of the frontier depended, was consummated three days 
after the "French Indians," by murdering those Moravians on the 
Mahoning, convinced the public that Bethlehem was not a "nest of 
conspirators" in league with them. 

The day on which the bill was signed, November 27, Bishop 
Spangenberg wrote to William Edmonds, the Moravian Assembly- 
man who had been elected in the place of James Burnside, deceased, 
presenting those features of the situation which called for the attention 
of the Assembly, as they appeared to him. He set forth the futility 
of the demonstrations being made by the undisciplined and excited 
rangers who "meant it well," but were accomplishing nothing. He 
said: "They don't understand Indian war, which is hunting of devils. 
They come in companies, beating of their drums and making a 
noise, that the Indians may hear it and so run away. They are, 
besides, ignorant of the woods, and the Indians, by their subtile arts, 
can draw them into dangerous places where they will surround them, 
and standing behind trees, will kill them, every one on the spot." 
Spangenberg further says in this letter, "We will stay where we are, 
for if we should give way, the whole county lies open before them, 
and there is not one place between here and Germantown where they 
will be stopped. The whole country knows this very well, and there- 
fore they think it needful by all means to stand in defence of Beth- 
lehem. The Indians, if they pass Bethlehem and Nazareth, can be 
followed and overtaken bv the Brethren, but if thev once have done 



324 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

with Bethlehem and Nazareth, the}' will fall down upon the scattered 
plantations like a rapid stream. * >!= * I think the best way is to keep 
guard and proper watches day and night ; and besides that to search 
the woods and take up every fellow that under pretense of hunting, 
lies skulking and watching the best opportunity of cutting people's 
throats, or of killing them with flames, guns, knives, hatchets, most 
barbarously, just as he can." He suggests three general ideas, 
as a plan of precaution, instead of the desultory roaming of the 
militia through the woods. One was the erection of a series of 
small stone forts, bullet-proof, with a garrison of about fifty men to 
range about each. Another was the concentration of people in the 
towns and villages, where, with a larger number together, a better 
system of watch, day and night, could be maintained by having 
enough men to alternate without exhaustion. The third was to build 
stockades at such places, within which to gather the women and 
children. Edmonds was asked to consult with Charles Brockden and 
others in an effort to get an act through the Assembly "to erect 
Gnadenhuetten as well as Bethlehem and Nazareth into corpor- 
ations," in order to make all official regulations about an authorized 
guard, as recognized by the civil authorities, applicable to the three 
places. 

At the time of writing, he yet hoped to preserve the Indian mission 
houses of new Gnadenhuetten on the east side* of the river from 
destruction, and, if a proper garrison, for which he had asked, were 
at once sent there, to be able to transfer the Indian congregation, 
now at Bethlehem, back to their village. 

In a letter written the next day to Charles Brockden of Phila- 
delphia, to the same general purport he says, "I can't but expect that 
you will do your utmost and use all your influence which you have 
in the world to assist us in a time so very critical. There is not one 
day nor night without most imminent danger, and the only thing we 
can do is to keep close to our Saviour." Of Timothy Horsfield he 
gives this testimony: "Br. HorSfield, who from morning till night 
is crowded with people — for all come to him, and I dare say that 
more than a thousand men have passed and repassed Bethlehem 
this week — acts like a man full of prudence and heartiness. I don't 
know what would become of the people (i. e., from the country) 
if they had not somebody to speak manlike to them. For they are not 
only almost frightened out of their wits, but are also without such 
commanders as the present circumstances seem to require." 



I7S5 1/56. 325 

The following day, November 30, an address to Governor Morris, 
drawn up for the Gnadenhuetten Indians who had fled to Bethlehem, 
rendered to them in their own several dialects — there were Dela- 
wares, Mohicans, Monseys and Wampanoags among them — adopted 
by them and attested with the tribal marks of thirteen of their 
principal men affixed to their respective written names, was sent by 
express to the Justices of Northampton County for approval, to be 
then forwarded to Philadelphia. In concluding the address, they 
declare: "None of us have any hand in the abominable murders 
lately committed by the Indians, but we abhor and detest them. It 
is our desire, seeing that we are persuaded that our lives will be 
principally sought after, to put ourselves as children under the pro- 
tection of this Government. We cannot say otherwise but that we 
are entirely devoted to the English Government and wish success 
and prosperity to their arms against their and our enemies. We 
hope that our Honorable Governor will give us a gracious answer 
to this our humble petition, and provide for our future welfare 
and security." i- 

In his reply of December 4, the Governor promised them protection 
and a fort at Gnadenhuetten — according to Spangenberg's sug- 
gestion — assured them that he did not suspect them of any part "in 
the late mischief," commiserated their losses and intimated that they 
were entitled to relief, stated his intention to have a conference with 
the friendly Indians, and desired them to remain where they were — to 
all of which he stood pledged under "the Lesser Seal of the Province." 
With this address of the Indians, Spangenberg had written a letter 
to the Justices, drawing their attention to the importance of holding 
these Indians together and protecting them, as men who at that time 
"could do the government the greatest service." He adds the 
following: "I cannot help letting you know that Gnadenhuetten is 
of as great importance to our government as Shamokin ; for if that 
place be not secured, not only all the settlers who live beyond the 
Blue Mountains must be going from their houses and farms, but the 
Indians can run down with freshes in a few hours into any part of 
the Forks ; yea, quite down to Philadelphia. If the Government 
should think well to build a fort there, we will give of the land we 
have there, ten acres, for that purpose, in a place which can command 
the Lehigh and a great way on all sides. If they choose our offer, 
they must needs keep a guard there, before the houses (on the east 
side) and mill are burned down; which can be of great service to 



326 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

them at first while they are building a fort." He then refers to the 
corn of the Gnadenhuetten Indians yet stored there, the undesir- 
ability of leaving it to the enemy and states that "twelve wagons, 
may be, would fetch it." This letter was forwarded to Philadelphia 
with an endorsement, urging the importance of the matters set forth, 
dated November 30, and signed by the Justices Parsons, Horsfield, 
Craig and Wilson. 

At the same time Spangenberg wrote to Secretary Peters, setting 
forth more at length the great importance of fortifying Gnaden- 
huetten, as follows: "I have considered that if Gnadenhuetten is 
emptied and left to the enemy, it may prove the ruin not only of all 
the settlements lying along the Lecha and Delaware, but also of 
Philadelphia. For troops may be marched from Wyomik to Gnaden- 
huetten in one day, and if they take possession thereof, they can run 
down with freshes in six hours to Bethlehem, and from thence to 
Philadelphia in one night. I have therefore mentioned this matter 
to the Magistrates of this County, and have represented unto them 
the great calamity which could be brought upon the whole country 
by the loss of that part of the Province. The situation of the hill 
which joins Gnadenhuetten is so extraordinary for a fort, that 
gentlemen of judgment who have seen it are of the opinion there 
could be no better. It lies on the road which comes from Wyomik, 
and commands not only the Lecha a great way, but all sides, up and 
down, before and behind. If the French once come and build there 
a fort, it will cost as much, if I am not mistaken, as the taking of 
Crown Point, to get it out of their hands. For if they put a garrison 
in the Gaps of the mountain, and make there also a fortification you 
cannot come at them at all with any great guns. But they can at 
pleasure come down, both by land and water, and over-run all plan- 
tations, not only on the other side of the Blue Mountain, but on this 
side also." Then he repeats the offer of land for such a fort and adds 
that there were "at least fifteen little habitable block houses," and 
that it would "be good to send up men before the enemy either 
burned or took them." 

When that letter reached Philadelphia, the first steps towards the 
defence of the frontiers had at last been taken, and the Commissioners 
were preparing to begin operations. Benjamin Franklin, the prin- 
cipal man among them, was satisfied, for the time-being, with the 
results of the diplomatic sparring with the Governor which he — then 
already, with far-sightedness planning to anticipate the decadence of 



1755 1756. 327 

the Proprietary Government as an obsolete relic of feudalism — had 
mainly steered, using the anti-war and anti-Proprietor Quaker con- 
tingent of the Assembly as a constituency. Now he hastened to 
make good the dissatisfaction and even resentment occasioned by 
the delay, among the citizens of the frontier neighborhoods, by 
vigorously pushing the plan of defences. Bishop Spangenberg's 
strong presentation of the Gnadenhuetten plan bore fruit, for, as the 
Governor intimated in his reply to the Indians, that point was at once 
recognized as one of great strategic value, and selected as the site 
of one of the chain of forts to be constructed "along the Kittatiny 
Mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland border." 

On December 19, Franklin, commissioned as Lieutenant General, 
with James Hamilton and Joseph Fox, two other of the Commis- 
sioners, arrived at Bethlehem, to proceed with this enterprise. They 
took quarters at the Crown Inn. They were followed by others, in 
the evening, with a large guard, in addition to that of fifty which 
earlier in the day had escorted the Bethlehem wagon from Phila- 
delphia, so that "about a hundred and fifty men were gathered at 
the tavern." It was high time for action. The savages had been 
growing bolder in their forays. The awful massacres at Hoeth's 
and the Brodhead settlements, December 10, had left that whole 
region desolate and almost depopulated. On December 12, Hors- 
field had sent to the Governor the accounts brought to Nazareth of 
these new horrors and forwarded from there by Nathanael Seidel 
and John Michael Graff. Depicting the situation at Bethlehem, 
Horsfield said: "Although our gracious King and Parliament have 
been pleased to exempt those amongst us of tender conscience from 
bearing arms, yet there are many among us who make no scruple of 
defending themselves against such cruel savages. ***** But alas ! 
what can we do, having very few arms and little or no ammunition, 
and we are now, as it were, the frontier, and as we are circum- 
stanced, our family (Economy), being so large, it is impossible for 
us to retire to any other place of security." 

The condition of the refugees pouring into Nazareth and Beth- 
lehem was most pitiable. At the time when the massacre at Hoeth's 
and Dansbury took place, three wagons were on the way to the 
latter place to procure grain for Bethlehem. Three miles from their 
destination they were met by Ephraim Colver and others with a 
company of half naked women and children. The men driving these 
wagons immediately took up the poor fugitives and returned to 



328 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Nazareth. The record observes that this was a special Providence, 
for many of the children who were almost naked would have perished 
on the road. Even before that, evidences of the presence of savages 
had appeared at different places south of the mountain. Before the 
close of November, some of them had been seen spying about the 
outskirts of Bethlehem. 

The first such discovery vv^as made in the evening of November 
29, when, in the course of the evening service, notice was brought to 
Spangenberg that the Gnadenhuetten refugees quartered in the 
Indian House across the Monocacy, at the mill, had seen strange 
Indians prowling about back of their house. Threats had been made 
by the savages and renegades that they would begin their work at 
Bethlehem by butchering this company of loyal and faithful Indians. 
The service was immediately brought to a close and a consultation 
was held as to the course it would be best to pursue towards such 
strange Indians, if any made their appearance openly and with peace- 
able pretensions. The night-watch, as then organized, was doubled 
and posted at five corners. It was agreed that if any one detected 
the approach of Indians, he should give a signal by discharging his 
gun. The next guard would do the same and so on, around the 
circuit, in the order arranged. The intention was to merely hold 
the savages at a distance by this evidence that a number of men were 
on the watch, thus frustrating their attempt for the night and avoiding 
actual collision and bloodshed. It was confidently believed that, at 
that time, the savages had not collected in the vicinity in sufficient 
numbers that they would venture to storm the place, and by such 
vigilance and demonstrations, prowling bands of three or four could 
be baffled. Soon after the guard was mounted, the awkwardness or 
nervousness of one of the sentries occasioned the accidental discharge 
of his gun. It was taken for granted that it was a signal as agreed 
upon, and directly the successive shots were fired according to 
arrangement. A general alarm was given and all of the men who 
were appointed to remain up for an emergency ran in the direction 
of the first shot, with clubs, flails and such other rude weapons as 
were at hand. Although it was soon found to have been a false alarm, 
this episode, which caused nearly all of the men in Bethlehem to 
remain up the entire night, was afterwards regarded as Providential, 
for the next day Augustus the Indian reported having, at that time, 
seen several strange Indians again coming down the hill west of the 
Monocacy towards the mill-dam, who were evidently frightened away 



1755 1/56. 3^9 

by the noise. This may serve as an instance of many an uneasy night 
experienced during the subsequent several months. 

While the presence of the Gnadenhuetten refugees added to the 
peril, on account of the vindicative determination of the blood-thirsty 
prowlers to make an end of them, they were, on the other hand, of 
value as watchers, for they were always on the look-out and, with 
the instinct and training of Indians, were able to discover evidences 
of strange Indians lurking about and give timely warning, when 
white men at the place did not suspect that any were near. This 
the Bethlehem people quickly understood, while the civil authorities 
likewise learned to appreciate their value as scouts, guides and 
messengers ; they being the most faithful and trustworthy residue of 
the Indians who had professed Christianity. The responsibility of 
those in control at Bethlehem and of those who kept guard increased 
continually during the last month of i/SS, as the population gathered 
there grew almost daily until at the close of the year it comprised 
400 souls, including the Indians of whom there were 70. 

One large influx, on December i, both stirred the hearts and 
braced the nerves of the men, and added intensity to the prayers 
of the women of Bethlehem during those anxious days and nights. 
After that first unmistakable evidence that savages were skulking 
about, it was determined to concentrate all the children at Bethlehem 
for greater security. On the above date, five wagons from Nazareth, 
conveying a most precious charge, drew up at the water-tower 
building in front of the Brethren's House. There were sixty-one 
quite young children, many of them barely beginning to speak and 
walk, and seventeen little girls a few years older — the nursery from 
the Whitefield House and the girls' school from the original log 
house next to it, with fifteen tutoresses, nurses and attendants, and 
the curator John Levering and his wife, all under the charge of the 
Rev. John Michael Graiif and his wife who were the general superin- 
tendents of the establishment. "Bag and baggage they came," says 
one record. "Like a flight of pigeons," says another. "The bees 
were swarming," says Graff in his autobiography; for he had a 
strange dream in the night of November 30. He saw, in his dream, 
his hives of bees swarming, although it was winter. The next 
morning when the sudden order came for this exodus to Bethlehem, 
he found in it the interpretation of his dream. 

While women looked on with tearful eyes and throbbing hearts 
and thought of the awful possibilities of the coming davs, as 
these little ones were taken into their temporary home. 



330 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

vacated for them by the men who had been occupying it, 
the children who were old enough to observe what had 
been done with them, were manifesting innocent delight at this 
sudden visit to Bethlehem, and eagerly enjoying the meal ready for 
them upon their arrival. Every effort had been made and was further 
made to keep all knowledge of the danger that threatened Bethlehem 
from the children. Not until the middle of January was any infor- 
mation given them. It was made necessary then by the remarks of 
refugees in the hearing of some children. Before that they had no 
thought about the militia who rode through Bethlehem but that they 
were "going hunting." Among them were several children of men 
and women who had perished at Gnadenhuetten. Of that mournful 
occurrence Spangenberg informed the children, with as much tact 
and caution as possible, on Sunday, the 7th of December, when they 
were all gathered at a children's service. The next day after the 
arrival of the children from Nazareth, two of the wagons were sent 
over to Salisbury with an escort to convey the boys of that school, 
with John Schmidt and his wife, who had charge of them, to Beth- 
lehem. These boys were quartered in a room in the Brethren's 
House. "Thus the population of Bethlehem was increased by 208 
souls in eight days." 

The anxiety was intense until Christmas was passed, for definite 
information had been received that the savages proposed to make 
an end of Bethlehem and Nazareth and clear the region of white 
people by the time of "their great day" — Christmas. Therefore much 
attention was turned to preparation for such an attack, while, at the 
same time, the greatest care was taken to prevent a panic. Work 
was pushed on the stockade run along the more exposed sides of 
the central buildings — west and north — and on the construction of 
watch towers and bastions at the corners, on which later two swivel 
guns were mounted for a while. Many of the windows of the houses 
were temporarily walled up ; those in the upper stories to the middle 
of the sash, so that light could enter and persons could look out, 
while the range of bullets fired up into the windows would thus be 
above the heads of all who were in the rooms. A regular system of 
armed guards and watchmen was gradually perfected. In the 
following months these guards, together with those appointed at the 
stations on the Nazareth land, were placed under the supervision of 
one general corporal ; the whole system and the single appointments 
being made subject to the approval of the Provincial authorities, and 
recognized as pertaining to their general plan of defence. 



1755- 



-1756. 



331 



That dreaded Christmas was passed without disaster. The murder- 
ous plotters found themselves baffled in their intended attack. Their 
methods were adapted only to sudden surprises upon unprotected 
points, to guerilla raids where they were not expected, and to 
skulking assassination in the woods ; and their numbers were not 
sufficient at any one point to besiege a town with adequate watch 
and guard. Such was the excellent morale maintained, that on Christ- 
mas Eve, after an early evening service, the people, with the exception 
of the guards and the numerous reserve of watchmen, retired quietly, 
trusting in the strong arm and the never-sleeping eye of Him without 
whose keeping "the watchman waketh but in vain." At four o'clock 
on Christmas morning the music of trombones from the roof-terrace 
of the Brethren's House ushered in the "great day" so dreaded, the 
people arose and the night-watch went off duty. There is a tradition 
that the notes of that Christmas morning chorale, breaking the 
dead silence, was wafted into the startled ears of some lurking 
savages on the hill-side, back of the Indian House, who were 
lingering near in the hope of yet applying a fire brand to some 
unguarded corner of the outer buildings before day broke; and that 
the strange, sweet sound struck fear into their hearts, so that they 
slipped away into the woods in dread of some unearthly power 
guarding Bethlehem. Other Indians to whom the prowlers had spoken 
about this, afterwards told of it. Later in the day when the large 
company of children who slept in Bethlehem the previous night 
without thought of fear, assembled in the church — the present "Old 
Chapel" — to enjoy a Christmas service and admire a Christmas 
picture painted for the occasion by Valentine Haidt, just as if no 
unusual conditions existed, some said the guardian angels of these 
children were our best Christmas watchers. 




TROMBONES WERE BROUGHT TO BETHLEHEM IN I754. 



332 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

New excitement and alarm marked the opening of the year 1756. 
A company of militia had shortly before been posted at Gnaden- 
huetten to guard the place. The houses on the east side and the mill 
on the Mahoning were yet standing. Several trips with wagons had 
been successfully made, bringing away grain and other things. On 
New Year's Day, twelve men with three wagons, each drawn by 
four horses, started from Bethlehem on the last such trip. When 
within two miles of their destination they were compelled to turn 
back, and the next day they reached Bethlehem again, bringing, not 
the remaining grain, but a number of wounded militia men. The 
savages had attacked the place, burned all that remained of it and 
overcome the guard there stationed, killing a number and wounding 
more. 

This completed the ruin of everything on both sides of the river 
that belonged to the Moravians. The property at Gnadenhuetten, 
East, now destroyed, consisted of the central mission-house con- 
taining the chapel, eighteen good log houses and twelve smaller 
Indian cabins. West of the river, the saw and grist-mill was now 
also burned.' The same day a foray was made, a little way to the west 

7 The appraisement affirmed to before Justice Horsfield, February 4, 1756, by George 
Klein, Joseph Powell and Henry Frey, figured the total loss at ^1914. 19. 3. Pa. Of this 
sum, the valuation of the houses on the east side was ^276, that of grain and other farm 
products on the Mahoning, ^129. 4. 3, and that of the cattle, ;^I4I. 15. 

What would now be by far the most valuable single item of property undoubtedly de- 
stroyed there, November 24, but not listed in the appraisement, was a book, now so rare 
that, a few years ago, a copy sold for $1250. September 13, 1754, Jacob Vetter brought to 
Bethlehem, to be deposited in the library, a book, purchased by John Hopson and Marcus 
Jung for 15 shillings at a "vendue" at Lancaster, a few weeks before. It was the complete 
Eliot Indian Bible, Old and New Testaments with Psalter in metre, printed in small quarto at 
Cambridge, Mass., 1663, '' at the charge, and with the consent of the Corporation in England 
for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England." That it was the 
very scarce complete edition is clear from the full reproduction of the title page given by 
the Bethlehem diarist. It was the property, formerly, of Christian Ludwig Sprogel, uncle of 
the wife of Wm. Parsons, presented to him by a friend in Holland. On the fly-leaf was the 
following entry, also reproduced in the Bethlehem diary : " Tot een Vriendllyk Andencken en 
tot een niltlig Gebrnyk onder dc Indianisse Volkeren vereert dit Boek aen syiien Vriend 
Heer Lodwick Christian Sprogel von Pensilvania, 

Amsterdam, den 9 April, 1717, 

Jan Hendrick de Hoest." 

It was taken to the Mahoning, October 7, 1754, for examination by the missionary stu- 
dents Fabricius, Roessler and Wedsted in connection with their linguistic work. The record 
states that Roessler was greatly pleased with it and found the language akin to the Mohican. 
There is no mention of its return to Bethlehem and it is not listed in the earliest extant cat- 



I75S 1756. 333 

of Christiansbrunn, where seven farm houses were burned and 
some of the people were killed. The Commissioners had left Beth- 
lehem, the last day of the year, and gone to Reading. A messenger 
followed them to that place with a report of this new disaster. It 
occasioned another panic among the people and a new inrush of 
refugees at Bethlehem. There were over a hundred in the town and 
at the Crown Inn on January 2. It also caused more speed in the 
erection of the rude fort at Gnadenhuetten. It was completed, 
January 25, when, with the first discharge from the muskets of the 
garrison and the two swivel guns mounted on the bastions of the 
stockade, the Governor's flag was hoisted and the structure named 
Fort Allen in honor of Justice William Allen. Thus the first thing 
tangible towards the protection of the Lehigh Valley from incursions 
of savages through the Gap was achieved. The entire series of 
frontier forts along the Kittatinny Hills was completed and equipped 
by the middle of February. It would have been well for the neigh- 
borhood that was now pouring its half frantic population into Beth- 
lehem, Nazareth, Friedensthal, and the other Moravian stations, if 
more haste had been made in taking possession of that first point in 
accordance with Spangenberg's urgent request, before the savages 
had that opportunity on New Year's Day. 

It was fortunate for the sufferers that the sorely-taxed Moravians 
had more sympathy and patience with the panic-stricken people, 
crowding in upon them, than the honorable Commissioners and his 
Excellency the Governor had. While the latter were in consultation at 
Reading, the first week in January, when the report of the disaster 
at Gnadenhuetten reached them, the Governor wrote to the Council 
at Philadelphia : "The Commissioners have done everything that 
was proper in the County of Northampton, but the people are not 
satisfied, nor, by what I can learn from the Commissioners, would 
they be unless every man's house was protected b)- a fort and a 
company of soldiers, and themselves paid for staying at home and 
doing nothing." Franklin wrote to Governor Morris on January 
14, from Bethlehem : "As we drew near this place we met a number 
of wagons, and many people moving off with their effects, and 

alogue of the Bethlehem librar)', made within 15 years after that, nor in any subsequent 
catalogue. It is therefore highly probable that it was destroyed November 24, 1755, and 
that the long-current supposition that it was stolen from the archives during the decades 
prior to 1 861, when they were carelessly left at the mercy of unscrupulous relic hunters, is 
erroneous. 



334 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

families from the Irish Settlement and Lehi Township, being terrified 
by the defeat of Hays's company (at Gnadenhuetten) and the burning 
and murders cohimitted in the Township on New Year's Day. We 
found this place filled with refugees, the workmen's shops and even 
cellars being crowded with women and children, and we learnt that 
Lehi Township is almost abandoned by the inhabitants."^ Franklin 
himself shared the unsympathetic sentiments expressed by the Gov- 
ernor about the demoralized people of the neighborhood a little while 
later, when the measures of defence had been gotten better in hand 
and the operations of the savages south of the Blue Mountains were 
thought to have been checked. 

During the first panic, the authorities at Bethlehem were 
requested to care, the best they could, not only for the Christian 
Indians, whom the Government, as a matter of policy, sought to hold 
together under safe influence, but also for the white people who fled 
to them from stricken neighborhoods ; and they were given to under- 
stand that the accounts, properly presented, for the expense incurred, 
would be paid. When the condition of things seemed to the Com- 
missioners to have become more settled, and the funds at their com- 
mand began to run low, they manifested some reluctance to be at 
further charges on account of the refugee settlers. Ultimately they 
demurred even against paying further bills on account of the Indians, 
and this, in violation of their own explicit instructions and promises 
to the Brethren who had all the burden and inconvenience even of 
sheltering and feeding "friendly" Indians, at the request of the 
Government, who were not members of their Christian flock, but 
whom the Government wished to favor from motives of policy. 

As regards the white refugees, Spangenberg wrote to Franklin, Feb- 
ruary 25, 1756, wishing to know what the further desire and intention 
of the Commissioners was. A new panic had been occasioned by fresh 
outrages in the greatly harassed neighborhood of Allemaengel. Span- 
srenbers: writes in reference to the refugees vet on the hands of the 



8 The records give tlie whole number of refugees received as 639 and the maximum num- 
ber at one time, in January, 1756, as 556, distributed as follows : Bethlehem, 205; Naza- 
reth, 134; Friedensthal, 104; Christiansbrunn, 49; Gnadenthal, 44: the Rose, 20. An- 
other statement is that at the end of the month, there were 449 at the Nazareth places, 226 
of them children, distributed as follows : Nazareth, 253 ; Friedensthal, 75 ; Gnadenthal, 
52; Christiansbrunn, 4S; the Rose, 21. The Whitefield House at Nazareth and the two 
log houses near by were entirely occupied by the refugees. The widows who were living 
in one of the latter when the nursery and girls' school were moved down to Bethlehem, 
were transferred temporarily to Gnadenthal. 



I75S '756. 335 

Brethren : "Some of them were removed again to their plantations, 
and others were upon going thither, but when the account came of 
the new mischief done lately by the enemy at AUemaengel, the latter 
did not care to stir, and the others came back again, some few 
excepted. Many of them are afraid of going to their plantations, 
not knowing what to do, if they find their houses either burned or 
robbed of all they left therein. We have supplied them who were 
in real necessity, hitherto, with meal and meat; and the Brethren 
keep an account thereof, as you was pleased to direct them in a 
letter to me, a copy whereof I here enclose, because Mr. Edmonds 
tells me that you had mislaid yours. But as the many labours which 
took away your time when lately at Bethlehem, have no doubt pre- 
vented your giving further orders about this matter, this is humbly 
to desire you in behalf of my Brethren, who present their humble 
respect and duty to you, to let us know in a line or two, if you please, 
your mind." In a post-script he adds : "As I hear Mr. Horsfield had 
orders to pay the Brethren iioo currency, which also he hath done, 
and taken receipt for it, they will be glad to know whether this sum 
of money is intended to pay their new accounts since the last balance, 
or whether it is to be laid out for to buy meat and meal for the 
above-mentioned poor refugees." Franklin's reply, dated Phila- 
delphia, March i, 1756, is a follows: "As the Forts are built and 
the Ranging Companies in Motion beyond the Mountains to cover 
the Inner Parts of the County, I think the People may now very 
safely stay at their Places. The Government is at a great Expense 
to afford them this Defence ; If they have no regard to it, but run 
away in so shameful and cowardly a Manner, every time an Indian 
or two appears in any Part of the Province, and abandon their Plan- 
tations, I believe the Government will not think it worth while to 
keep up these Guards merely to secure empty Houses and unculti- 
vated Fields, but will demolish the Forts, withdraw the Companies 
from your Frontier, and send them to other Parts to defend a better 
and more manly People. Of this be pleased to acquaint them ; and 
farther that the Commissioners desire no Allowance may be made 
of Provisions on Acc't of the Government to any Refugees at your 
Place after this time ; for some of them, as long as they can live in 
Indolence with you, and be fed, will think little of returning to their 
places, or of the duty of caring and laboring for their own Livelihood. 
The £100 advanced your Brethren was only to prevent your being in 
Advance for us : It is to be accounted for when we settle, and what 



336 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Provisions you liave furnish'd to the Poor, according to my Letter 
will be allowed. I am with the greatest respect," &c. 

Undoubtedly these animadversions, like those of the Governor, 
were merited in the case of many who, as Spangenberg himself had 
remarked, had become "frightened out of their wits," and of certain 
others who were disposed to accept charity as long as it was 
dispensed. At the same time, as many shocking instances until well 
on into the spring proved, some neighborhoods were far from being 
rendered as safe by those forts and rangers as the authorities, with 
their own persons and property at a secure distance, would have 
these afflicted people think. The jeopardy in which the execution of 
this threat on the part of the Lieutenant General would place Beth- 
lehem and everything that was recognized as dependent upon its 
security, does not seem to have been in his mind when he penned 
the letter. Perhaps he had been too greatly impressed by the ability 
of the Bethlehem people to take care of themselves and of others. In 
a well-known and oft-quoted passage about Bethlehem, in his famous 
autobiography, Franklin says : 'T was surprised to find it in so good 
a posture of defence. The principal buildings were defended by a 
stockade ; they had purchased a quantity of arms and ammunition 
from New York, and had even placed large quantities of small paving 
stones between the windows of their high stone houses, for their 
women to throw upon the heads of any Indians that should attempt 
to force into them. The armed Brethren, too, kept watch and relieved 
as methodically as in any garrison town." Referring to his surprise 
at their making use of arms, in view of their exemption from military 
duty by act of Parliament, and Spangenberg's explanation, which he 
tmdoubtedly failed to understand accurately, he makes this obser- 
vation: "It seems they were either deceived in themselves or deceived 
the Parliament; but common sense, aided by present danger, will 
sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions. "° 



9 Sufficient has been said in Chapter VII and in this Chapter on the position of the Mora- 
vians in this matter, to enable the reader to understand it and to discover, in referring to the 
passage from which the above quotations are made, wherein Dr. Franklin misapprehended 
it. They were neither deceived nor deceiving, but were acting in perfect consistency ; for 
they were sane men and not the whimsical enthusiasts he at that time yet supposed them to 
be. Later, when he gave more attention to their principles, he learned to know them better. 
The alleged purchase of arms and ammunition from New York referred to was a misunder- 
standing. On December 20, some Brethren arrived from New York with these stores sent 
by friends there for the use of Bethlehem in the extremity that had come. It caused Span- 
genberg much perplexity, for he was doing his utmost to hold the more excited ones at 



1755 1756. 337 

The general confidence inspired by the "posture of defence" in 
which Bethlehem was found was not caused by the sight of many 
guns, nor of military parade ; for of the first the people saw very 
few — they were not displayed — and of the second they saw none 
whatever on the part of the residents. The kind of measures adopted 
were not only those of men who were determined to exhaust every 
other means before armed collision became the last resort, but 
also of men who understood the Indians and knew their 
thoughts, habits and methods much better than did the honorable 
Commissioners or the majority of the men from the lower country 
and from New Jersey, who marched to and fro, and made random 
sallies through the woods. Nothing perplexed and baffled skulking 
Indians so much as the constant vigilance maintained and the plans 
adopted to let them know that there was no unguarded spot which 
they could approach, and no moment at which they could slip upon 
the people unawares and catch them napping. This simple principle 
of meeting their approach defeated every attempt to carry out the 
only kind of plans they had. Bishop Spangenberg, in his auto- 
biography, thus briefly and graphically presents the general method 
and principle of these systematic precautions : "At night the watch- 
men shouted one to another at intervals of an hour, so that the sound 
rang out loudly into the forest. We also built block houses and 
mounted them with guns, and when a gun was discharged it was a 
signal to the vicinity that hostile Indians were near. Thus when 
the savages came spying at night, they always found us in readiness. 
Then I called all the Brethren together and begged them for Jesus' 
sake by all means to spare the life of every hostile Indian (shooting 
low if they were forced to shoot), and if one was, perchance, shot in 
the legs, we proposed to take him in for treatment and care for him 
with all faithfulness until he recovered. I fell upon my face and 

Bethlehem to the principles of the Church, persuading them to show the calmness and forti- 
tude of implicit trust in the Lord under this severe strain; influence the panic-stricken 
neighborhood by this kind of moral strength ; use constant vigilance to thwart approaches 
by the enemy and prevent the necessity of violent collision as long as possible ; and to think 
of actually using fire-arms only as the last desperate defence. The sending of those arms 
from New York came nearer than any other incident, to breaking the internal, moral disci- 
pline at Bethlehem, and in a letter to the friends in New York in reference to their well- 
meant act, Spangenberg took pains to strongly present his position. That the cobble-stones 
in the windows were to be thrown down on the heads of Indians by the women was erron- 
eous information or supposition. This was merely the walling-up to protect from bullets 
mentioned in the text. 
23 



338 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

besought the Saviour to graciously prevent all bloodshed at our 
place, and, to Him be thanks. He heard our prayer." 

The disbursements by the Commissioners for the relief of white 
refugees had not amounted to much, and the burden their presence 
laid upon the Brethren was very hard to bear, along with caring for 
their own large number of dependent women and children, while 
feeling the effect of ver}' short crops and the almost complete 
stoppage of industries at Bethlehem during those hard winter months. 
Five thousand extra bushels of grain had to be bought between New 
Year and the next harvest to cover their own needs, apart from what 
was furnished the refugees and onl}^ in part paid for by the gov- 
ernment. During January and February, 1756, it furthermore 
became necessary to borrow over £700. They were assisted in 
bearing the burden by some benevolent people of Philadelphia who, 
at the instance of Anthony Benezet, to whom Bishop Spangenberg 
had appealed in behalf of the refugees, sent considerable quan- 
tities of clothing and provisions for distribution to the needy. The 
donors gave instructions that the Gnadenhuetten Indians should also 
be helped out of the stores sent. Several wagon-loads of such supplies 
were likewise sent by friends in the lower part of Bucks County. 
Referring to this in his autobiography. Bishop Spangenberg says : 
"I appointed two Brethren and instructed them to make a list of all 
the things that came into our hands, and, not only to distribute the 
articles carefully, but to record each day to whom this and that thing 
was given. This was done, and we afterwards put the account of 
receipts and disbursements into the hands of our worthy Magistrate 
(Horsfield), so that all should be done honestly and orderly, not only 
before God but also before men. When afterwards a worthless 
individual came and accused the Brethren of appropriating these 
donations to their own vise, the Magistrate defended us and at once 
stopped the mouth of the slanderer." Writing to Franklin again, 
March 8, 1756, after the receipt of the latter's letter which reflected 
somewhat harshly upon the refugees; Spangenberg said: "It might 
be good to buy for them now, what they will want till the harvest 
time ; for many of them having lost houses, barns, grain, cattle, 
horses and all, if even they should be willing to return to their 
respective places, they cannot live without being helped. What the 
Brethren have received for them by charitable hands, is, most part, 
given unto them, and what is left yet, will cheerfully be bestowed 
upon them and accounts kept, which either our Magistrates or any 



I75S 1756. 339 

of the benefactors may examine at pleasure." In June, 1757, 
Spangenberg, writing to Anthony Benezet about the calumny, which 
seems to have grieved him deeply, says: "I have thought sometimes 
whether the said accounts should not be published. But considering 
that the Names of poor honest People must be exposed to the Public 
(and many poor honest People would rather suffer the greatest 
Hardship than see themselves in their Poverty exposed) in so doing, 
have thought it best to leave it in Mr. Horsfield's Hands for the use 
of all who want to see it."^" 

After the month of January, 1756, had been safely passed, people 
began to breathe easier again at Bethlehem. The second week in 
February, it was thought safe to reduce the guard. By the middle 
of the month all but sixty of the refugees had ventured to return 
home or go elsewhere, even though reports of raids by the savages 



10 Some writers have erroneously confused this matter with the objections raised in the 
Assembly against the accounts presented by the Brethren to the Commissioners for e-xpenses 
incurred in behalf of the Indians. See Matthew Henry — History of the Lehigh Valley, p. 
207-208. The accounts l<ept of these donations to refugees were not required by any one, 
but were kept voluntarily, just in order to guard against such gossip. The Commissioners 
had nothing to do with these accounts, and they never went before the Assembly. Mr. 
Henry takes singular pains to minimize the good offices of Spangenberg and the Moravians 
in this matter, and even speaks disrespectfully of Spangenberg, saying, e.g., that " he occa- 
sionally used flattery to the Governor in order to attain his ends." The " Obrigkeit" referred 
to by Spangenberg in his autobiography quoted by Mr. Henry from Risler, did not mean the 
Governor, but the local magistrate, Timothy Horsfield. He, and not the Governor, ■ " spoke 
a good word for the Brethren." 

The accounts which some in the Assembly wanted to repudiate were those " for supplies 
and entertainment furnished to the Christian Indians who had fled thither after the massacre 
on the Mahoning ; and to Indians who sojourned there with the knowledge of Government, 
pending negotiations for Peace between it and Teedyuscung, King of the Delawares, 1756- 
1757 " — published in Memorials of the Moi-avian Church, by Wm. C. Reichel, Philadelphia, 
1870. The heaviest of those accounts were for supplies furnished to Indians who were not 
among the Moravian converts, were a burden and nuisance, and at times even a peril 
to Bethlehem, tolerated there at the instance of the Government and supplied by Govern- 
ment orders, April, 1756, to April, 1758. No objection was made to the first several accounts 
rendered by agreement of the Commissioners of the Assembly. The heaviest bills went in 
after large troops of Indians flocked to the neighborhood for the Council, on invitation of 
the Governor ; and he, on June 23, 1756, in a letter to Timothy Horsfield, specially author- 
ized the Brethren " to support and maintain them till they have my further orders," and 
promising that " any expenses attending this service will be paid by the Government." This 
being an order by the Governor and not by the Assembly or its Commissioners, the Assem- 
bly objected in consistency with the relations between them and the Governor, each oppos- 
ing on general principles whatever the other said or did. The last of these accounts were 
finally paid in June, 175S. 



340 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in more distant regions continued to come in. New excitement was 
occasioned by the Governor's "declaration of war against the Dela- 
wares," April 14, 1756, and the proclamation of bounty for Indians 
killed or captured — the "scalp money" he was constrained to offer 
at the instance of the Commissioners, under strong pressure from 
certain frontier settlers who proposed to have, at least, the grim 
satisfaction of turning the hazardous employment of hunting Indians, 
like that of hunting beasts of prey, to pecuniary account. Here was 
a new temptation to men in whose eyes one Indian was the same 
as another, to again turn sinister attention to the inoffensive Indians 
at Bethlehem. 

Spangenberg went to Philadelphia in April to have an interview 
with the Governor about attempting an embassy to the Indians up 
on the Susquehanna, with a view to negotiations for peace. He had 
consulted with Mr. Parsons about this project already in January, 
then with certain Assemblymen, and had also written to the Gover- 
nor. The result was that, at the end of April, three Indian deputies 
sent by the Governor arrived at Bethlehem to undertake this mis- 
sion, accompanied by Augustus, the most intelligent and reliable 
Bethlehem Indian for such an enterprise. They returned to Bethle- 
hem, May 19, coming down the Lehigh by canoe under convoy of 
a detail from the Fort Allen garrison, flying the English flag. From 
Augustus it was learned that three times the hostiles had planned a 
decisive blow against Bethlehem and Nazareth; that Paxnous and 
Abraham had sturdily opposed all hostihties, and that the enemy 
were now willing to parley and to consider terms of peace. Two 
days later, when they were in Philadelphia reporting to the Gover- 
nor, a day of fasting and prayer was observed in the Province, in 
view of the formal declaration of war against France by the King 
of England, and, as a result of their report, the Governor, on June 
3, declared an armistice, with the intention of trying such a council; 
the proclamation of scalp-money and aggressive plans against the 
Delawares, as well as the general declaration of war against France 
and her allies, being thought of combined service, in disposing the 
Indians to come to terms more readily. 

Upon this, the gathering of troops of Indians from a distance at 
Bethlehem, which caused so much discomfort, annoyance, and, at 
times, danger, for more than a year, began ; and there was much 
correspondence with the government on this subject prior to the 
Council, which finally took place at Easton, the last week in July. 



1755 1756. 341 

An insight into this troublesome situation will be gotten from several 
instances. Two Indians, Nicodemus and Jo Pepy, who had been 
among the converts of Brainerd referred to in a previous chapter, 
and had then first affiliated with the Moravian Indians and finally 
joined the enemies of the Government, but now professed penitence, 
came, among others, on June 21, hearing of the amnesty proclaimed. 
Their presence excited particular resentment among some people 
in the neighborhood. Spangenberg was constrained to write to the 
Governor on June 26, and represent the particular embarrassment 
they occasioned. He says : "To tell your Honour the truth, I don't 
believe that either Jo Pepy or Nicodemus and their families can 
stay at Bethlehem. We have been obliged to put people out of 
the (Indian) house to make room for them. But this is not all. There 
is such a rage in the neighborhood against the said poor creatures, 
that I fear they will mob us and them together. For Jo Pepy having 
lived among the Presbyterians, and treacherously being gone from 
them, hath exasperated them in the highest degree. We have put 
two men with them to be their safeguard, but your Honour knows 
very well that this won't hinder the stream when it is coming upon 
us and them at the same time. They have told me the families 
which are inclined to come, and will come if they can, with New 
Castle" (the famous Indian messenger of the Government). "The 
most of them are well-known here to be good-for-nothing, and quite 
faithless creatures. I therefore humbly beg of your Honour to 
remove the said Jo Pepy and Nicodemus and their families, the sooner 
the better, to Philadelphia; for they are in the heart of the country, 
and mischief may be prevented which could breed evil consequences." 
The next perplexity was presented in a letter by Justice Horsfield 
to the Governor, July 6. He writes : "We labour under much diffi- 
culty on account of these Indians — a son of Paxnous and three others 
from Tioga — wanting their guns repaired, and to have some powder 
and lead, which we cannot by any measure do unless we have your 
Honour's express commands for it ; if it be your Honour's pleasure 
it shall be done, or not, please to signify it. Your Honour shall be 
strictly obeyed." Governor Morris replied, July 9, with the approval 
of the Council as follows : "Tell him (the son of Paxnous) I wish 
it could have consisted with the circumstances of their families for 
them to have given me the satisfaction of seeing them here; but as 
this does not suit them now, and they are in want of provisions, I 
have ordered you to supply them with as much as they can carry, 



342 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and a small quantity of powder and lead, as much as may be wanted, 
for the present, to serve their necessities ; more I would give them, 
but it would be dangerous to themselves, if met by our enemy Indians, 
to have more." With this message the Governor adds privately to 
Horsfield: "I think three or four pounds of powder will be enough, 
and as much provisions as they can carry; how much that will be, 
must be left to your judgment, but they should by all means be sent 
very well satisfied. "^^ 

Again, on Jul}' 7, Horsfield addressed the Governor on the great 
peril involved in the tarrying of Indians in the vicinity, pending the 
delayed Council at Easton, under an amnesty which expired on July 3. 
In many cases it could not be known whether they were friends or 
foes. Embittered white people could take advantage of the expiration 
of the proclamation, to form a "scalping party" under the bounty- 
act and attack them, occasioning riot and bloodshed. Indians armed, 
and now not feeling bound to a cessation of hostilities, might perfid- 
iously attack Bethlehem and commit outrages in the neighborhood. 
It was announced that a deputation would visit the Governor to 
personally lay the situation before him. 

The crowded condition of Bethlehem was referred to — twenty 
and more persons compelled to occupy one room, in many cases, 
and seventy occupants in the Indian House of two rooms. The 
Provincial Council, on July 10, advised the Governor to extend the 
amnesty, and in view of the crowded state of things at Bethlehem, 
with no troops there for a defence, to order these Indians, waiting 
for the conference at Easton, to be transferred to that place where 
there was a guard. There at the county seat, they, as guests of the 
Government, belonged. Instructions were sent, the next day, to 
Mr. Parsons to make such provision, and so Bethlehem was relieved 
the following week for a season, of this large number of "strange 
Indians." At the same time Teedyuscung, the "Delaware King," 
whose name was now on all lips and whose presence was dreaded 
by many, while many were inquisitive to see him, made his appear- 
ance with Captain New Castle and a large retinue. Then, to the 
dismay of the people at Bethlehem, the word came that the treaty 

■I This matter of furnishing powder and lead from the Bethlehem store continued to be a 
very troublesome and risky one, for obvious reasons, and was continually made the subject 
of suspicious comment and groundless stories by ill-disposed persons ; just as it later was, 
under quite other circumstances, during the Revolutionary War. Hence the care taken to 
have government instructions. 



1755 1756. 343 

wovild be held here — a thing spoken of before, but thought to have 
been averted. Just as they had concluded to accept the inevitable 
and had begun, with heavy hearts, to prepare for it, instructions 
again came from the Governor, countermanding this. So, on July 
24, the Council finally opened at Easton. It was the proper place, 
being the official center of the neighborhood. The long and prolix 
parley which there took place may be passed over. It was a disap- 
pointment to many who hoped for definite results. Horsfield, 
Nathanael Seidel, Shebosh and David Zeisberger went from Beth- 
lehem, by request, to join a large number of Friends from Phila- 
delphia, in trying to influence the issue in the interests of peace. 
The only definite result was the appointment of another council to 
be held in the autumn. 

The dreaded Teedyuscung lingered about Bethlehem several days 
after that, and there are references to "disagreeable visits" to the 
officials at Bethlehem by him. Sometimes he was sober, but more 
frequently not. But worse than this, very disturbing rumors of 
dangerous talk indulged in by him were soon rife. The latter part 
of August, several letters from Parsons, Horsfield and Edmonds, and 
one from Sir Charles Hardy, in reference to his suspicious conduct 
and treacherous utterances after the treaty, were considered by the 
new Governor, William Denny, and the Council, with former 
Governor Morris present for consultation. This, and the dangerous 
outlook for the frontier from French movements at the time, with 
the weakness of the Pennsylvania Government, through the lack of 
good understanding between Governor and Assembly, were 
impressed upon the Bethlehem people by Spangenberg, on September 
9, and the need of faith and prayer, loyalty and unity was impressed. 



CHAPTER X. 



To THE End of the General Economy. 
1756 — 1762. 

During the first part of the year 1756, the condition of Bethlehem 
was one of much turmoil, when compared with its normal state ; but, 
when compared with that of the surrounding neighborhoods, the 
situation would have seemed to an onlooker from the outside, one of 
undisturbed order and unruffled serenity. The ordeal produced no 
demoralization. The principles, discipline, general tone and even, to 
a surprising extent, the common daily routine of the place were 
maintained through it all. It was fortunate that the deliberations 
of 1754, on the question of continuing or abolishing the existing 
system, resulted in the conclusion to make no changes at that time. 
A general toning up and strengthening of the Economy resulted, 
instead of steps towards a radical alteration of the establishment. 
If the latter course had then been taken, things would have been 
in transition, disorganized and not yet properly reconstructed in 
other shape, when this strain came, and therefore not, by far, so 
well prepared to withstand it. Many features of the Economy organ- 
ization served, in this emergency, for the special measures that 
would under other circumstances have been instituted at such a 
time, with the additional advantage of long training in such ways and 
methods. Therefore it was Providential that the General Economy 
yet existed intact. Amidst the troublous conditions which continued, 
there was no thought of tampering with it. Hence it came that 
the arrangement ran on for six years longer. 

Not only the necessities of the situation, but also the wise purpose 
to keep men, as far as possible, occupied in natural and ordinary 
ways and to maintain all that could be of normal spirit and habit, 
prompted Spangenberg and those who were in counsel with him, to 
proceed with plans to start the wheels of industry moving regularly 
again in all departments, even when the town was overrun with 
refugees and the watch against surprises by the savages had to be 

344 




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1756 1762. 345 

preserved ever}- hour of the day and night. Thus, already the 
middle of January, steps were taken to start up a saw-mill again at 
Bethlehem ; that at Gnadenhuetten, now burned down, having, along 
with that at Christiansbrunn, taken the place, for some years, of 
the 'first one built at Bethlehem. Material was gotten together, 
but it was not until the 9th of June that the masons went to work. 
It was completed in September and on the 21st of that month, the 
sawing of lumber at Bethlehem was recommenced. 

At a general meeting, the end of March, the subject of building 
a new and larger pottery was discussed. The products of this estab- 
lishment were much in demand, so that it was one of the most 
profitable industries. At the same time the suspended tavern- 
building project was anew considered, but it was not deemed 
expedient to proceed at once with this undertaking. The grist-mill 
was kept running, and those industries which furnished material for 
clothing were not permitted to remain idle, when enough order was 
restored to start them up again. All that could be done in the 
winter and early spring, to enlarge the cultivated area at Bethlehem, 
as well as on the Nazareth domain, was persevered in, even when 
men had to work under guard at clearing, grubbing and fencing. 
The Indians living under protection at Bethlehem were employed, 
to a considerable extent, at this kind of work for stipulated wages. 
Receipts for wages paid them, signed with the marks of the tribes 
and clans to which they belonged, are interesting mementos of 
those times still preserved at Bethlehem. On through the spring 
and summer they rendered valuable service in times of danger, as 
guards and rangers in the surrounding woods, when men were plow- 
ing and sowing, and companies of women were helping in harvest 
time, to get in the hay and the precious grain. More than one com- 
pany of women went out to distant parts of the fields and back, or 
to and fro between Bethlehem and Nazareth under the protection 
of such an Indian escort. The Indian women were, much of the time, 
busil}- engaged in making baskets, brooms, mats and other such 
articles, for which they received compensation. Thus they helped 
to supply things that were continually needed and that could be put 
on the market, and habits of industry, self-dependence and thrift 
were cultivated among them ; while the men, who had learned that 
it was no more of a disgrace for an Indian than for a white man to 
labor with his hands, were, by object-lessons, teaching this to other 
Indians who came to Bethlehem. To the skill of these Indians at 



346 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 






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SIGNATURES OF INDIANS. 



1756 1/62. 347 

bush-net fishing frequent important additions to the food supply 
were also due. Thousands of shad and rockfish were thus caught 
by them in the Lehigh. 

When the refugees, for the most part, returned to their homes, 
leaving the quarters they had occupied vacant, and the number 
of men continually needed as guards was gradually reduced, the 
workshops all resumed their customary appearance. On June 
3, the nursery and girls' school of Nazareth were moved back 
to their quarters in the Whitefield House and the adjacent log cabin, 
while the company of men, ■ who had vacated the water-tower 
house to make room for these children, returned to their quar- 
ters. Apart from the Indians from distant places loitering about 
Bethlehem, as Government pensioners, little in the appearance of 
the village would have indicated that such times had been passed 
through and that the air was yet full of tnicertainty and dread. 
Special efforts were made to keep the attention of the children in 
the large boys' school and in the boarding-school for girls engaged 
with their regular routine. On November i, when the time for the 
second large gathering of Indians at Easton was near; when unruly 
bands of them, here and there, coming down the country, were com- 
mitting depredations, and even murders ; when a state almost of 
panic had again been aroused in some neighborhoods, and there was 
every reason for anxiety and dread at Bethlehem, a school exami- 
nation took place, as if the times had been the most quiet and peace- 
ful. A hundred and ninety-nine boys and girls were assembled in the 
present "Old Chapel." They were examined in spelling and read- 
ing, both English and German, and in arithmetic. Specimens of pen- 
manship were on exhibition, as well as of spinning, knitting and 
sewing by the girls, while vocal and instrumental music was furnished 
by the classes under John Andrew Albrecht, then the principal teacher 
and leader of music. 

At that very time the symptoms of trouble were sufficient that 
measures were being taken to put Bethlehem in as complete a posi- 
tion of defence as the previous winter. The guard was restored to 
full strength, watch-houses were again constructed where several 
previous ones had been removed, and many windows and back doors 
of the large buildings were again walled up, the following week. On 
November 8, the second Council between the Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania and the grotesquely haughty Teedyuscung, with other chiefs 
and warriors and their retinue, opened at Easton. It continued until 
the 17th. The very day on which these exchanges of grandiloquent 



348 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and evasive rhetoric, ostensibl)^ in the interests of honest peace, 
began, the in-rush of refugees from the Blue Mountains at Nazareth 
and Bethlehem also began anew, while reports of outrages by some 
loitering savages in other directions were received. Even if Teedy- 
uscung, as a matter of expediency for the time being, was trying to 
prevent such things, it was clear that his word did not weigh with all 
the savages, and the fact that many repudiated his pretended author- 
ity and scouted his assumptions, was also appearing. Resentment 
awakened by the severe blow dealt the Indians, in the encounter at 
Kittanning, by Col. Armstrong, was leading some of them in the east 
to perpetrate petty retaliations. 

Perhaps, as some suspected, Teedyuscung had really instigated 
these simultaneous, cowardly assaults upon defenceless settlers at 
various points, in order to make the people he assumed to represent 
seem more dangerous just at that time. In any case, the reports of 
these outrages made the presence of so many Indians in the neigh- 
borhood a menace to the peace. Large numbers of men on both 
sides of the Delaware were stirred up to a pitch that might at any 
moment lead them to forget all prudence and precipitate an encoun- 
ter with them. It might be supposed that the anxiety at Bethlehem 
would have been sufficient, at such a time, to divert attention from 
all but the most necessary things. Right in the midst of the Council, 
however, with that Moravian spirit of the time which was so inscru- 
table to many, a number of the Bethlehem people went to Nazareth 
and engaged in the dedication of Nazareth Hall, on November 13, 
the day selected on account of its historic significance with which it 
was desired to have this structure — originally intended for a "Juen- 
gerhaus"'^ — associated. To add to the incongruity of the situation, 
the Rev. Melchior Schmidt, minister at Allemaengel, with his wife 
and forty people, arrived at Bethlehem as refugees from that afflicted 
neighborhood, that very day. 

Governor Denny and his suite came to Bethlehem after the 
Council at Easton closed, on the evening of November 17, and enjoyed 
the hospitality of the place over night. They were entertained with 
the best viands and the best music that could be produced, and the 
new Governor was given an insight into the principles and purposes, 
as well as the peculiar arrangements of the Economy. The next 
morning, when he left for Philadelphia, he was speeded on his way 

I On this term and its application to Nazareth Hall see Chapter VIII, and particularly 
note 19. 



i7S6 1762. 349 

with benisons sung by the children, who had been summoned to pay 
their respects to the Chief Magistrate of the Province. On Novem- 
ber 19, various features of that Council with the Indians were com- 
municated at a general meeting in Bethlehem, together with the 
information — and this was the gist of the outcome — that they had 
been invited to come to another Council in the spring, in the presence 
of Sir William Johnson, the Royal Commissioner of Indian Afifairs, 
then so influential and popular with the chiefs of the Six Nations. 
Now and again, during the next months, reports of incendiary and 
murderous assaults by the savages at different points, kept people 
in a state of uneasiness. In December, Bishop Spangenberg wrote 
that a careful watch was kept up, and remarked: "The savages are 
just like a nest of hornets : when it is torn open, they swarm and 
buzz and sting every one who comes in their way, regardless of 
whether he has done them an injury or not." 

On December 16, a familiar and welcome face, absent for more 
than a year, re-appeared in Bethlehem. Bishop Peter Boehler, who 
had gone to Europe the previous autumn on official business, leav- 
ing his wife in Bethlehem, now returned to assist Bishop Spangen- 
berg as coadjutor.- The latter was beginning to feel the burden and 
strain of his manifold duties in such trying times, and Bishop Hehl 
was to locate at the new settlement, Lititz, the site of which had been 
selected and plotted the previous June. 

= Spangenberg, as General Superintendent, bore the official title : Ordinarii Unitatis Frat- 
mm Vicarius Generalis in America. Zinzendorf, as General Superintendent of the whole, 
was simply Ordinai-iits. Spangenberg, as General Superintendent in America, was thus 
Vicar-General of the Ordinarius. Boehler, as his coadjutor, taking Hehl's place, now bore 
the title, Vice- Ordinarius o-^^x z%2\TiS\. Spangenberg. Hehl's superintendence was to lie at 
a separate new centre and to extend over an associated district of country charges. A com- 
parison of this to Antioch, the second separate centre of the primitive Church with Ignatius 
as its first distinct Bishop, is commonly taken to be the meaning of the peculiar term Sedes 
Episcopalis Ignatiana, applied by Zinzendorf to Lititz and used on the document deposited 
in the corner-stone of the original official building — Gemeinhaus — of that place. 

Boehler arrived at New York on the Irene, December 12. She had sailed from New 
York, July i, for Europe with no Moravians on board but the captain, Jacobsen, and one 
of the sailors, Lambert Garrison. With Boehler came William Boehler who was connected 
some time with the Indian mission in some secular capacity and became proficient in the 
Delaware language, Christian Bohle, Adolph Eckesparre, a collegian in Deacon's orders, 
and Christian Gottlieb Renter, the surveyor and architect who eventually settled at Salem, 
N. C. They had sailed from London September 23, with a fleet of 60 merchant vessels 
under convoy of several men-of-war. Contrary winds detaining the fleet at the Isle of 
Wight, the Irene put out on the hazardous voyage alone. 



3SO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Another glimpse at the situation towards the close of the year 
1756, in the matter of annoyance and worry about the straggling- 
Indians harbored at Bethlehem at the desire of the Government — 
the expense of which, incurred by Government order, the honorable 
Assembly later objected to paying — is furnished by a letter written 
to Governor Denny by Spangenberg, November 29. On this sub- 
ject he writes : "We are at a loss how to act with those Indians that 
come out of the woods and want to stay at Bethlehem. They are 
very troublesome guests, and we should be glad to have your 
Honour's orders about them (i. e., new orders since the treaty). Our 
houses are full already, and we must be at the expense of building 
winter-houses for them, if more should come, which very likely will 
be the case, according to the account we have from them who are 
come. And then another difficulty arises, viz. : We hear that some 
of our neighbors are very uneasy at our receiving such murdering 
Indians, for so they style them. We, therefore, I fear, shall be 
obliged to set watches to keep off such of the neighbors who might 
begin quarrels with, or attempt to hurt, any of the Indians. Now 
we are willing to do anything that lays in our power for the service 
of the Province where we have enjoyed sweet peace for several years 
past. But we want your Honour's orders for every step we take, 
and we must beg not to be left without them ; the more so because 
we have reason to fear that somehow an Indian may be hurt or 
killed, which certainly would breed new trouble of war. We had, 
at least, a case last week that some one fired at an Indian of Bethle- 
hem, but a little way from Bethlehem in the woods. I hope Mr. 
Horsfield will give your Honour a particular account thereof." With 
that letter Spangenberg sent the Governor, in accordance with the 
latter's request to Horsfield on November 17. a complete catalogue 
of the persons who belonged to the Economy, both resident and 
non-resident, accompanied with sundr)f_ memoranda deemed desir- 
able to give the Governor full information.^ 

3 The principal items of this paper, presenting the situation at the close of 1756, are the 
following: 510 persons at Bethlehem besides 96 children, some orphans and others belong- 
ing to Brethren and friends not of the Bethlehem Economy. 4S men and women employed 
in missionary work among the heathen — North American Indians, Berbice and Surinam, 
South America, and the West Indies. 54 preaching and teaching among white people in 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England and North Carolina. 62 instructors 
and attendants of children at Bethlehem and Nazareth. 45 single men and S married 
couples in North Carolina, "and 50 more here for that purpose to go there soon." 72 of the 
above "in holy orders," 4 Bishops, 12 Presbyters (Ordinarii), 56 Deacons; and "as many 



1756 1762. 351 

During the first part of the year 1757, until the next great Council 
with the Indians at Easton, official attention at Bethlehem was 
divided between Indian affairs and other important matters of a gen- 
eral character. Before Boehler left Europe, General Synods of the 
Church had been held, at which the foundations were laid for a better 
permanent organization of central direction, and particularly of 
financial administration, which was developed in subsequent years — 
rendered necessary by the financial crisis referred to in a previous 
chapter, the results of which now required a different system of man- 
agement from that followed before. In various ways, the steps taken 
by those Synods had a very important bearing on the situation at 
Bethlehem and on all the interests here centered. A Synod was held 
at the place in January, at which fundamental matters were dealt 
with, and on February 27, the Rev. Nathanael Seidel left Bethlehem 
for New York, whence, on March 4, he sailed for Europe* to trans- 
act business of the utmost consequence in connection with the prop- 
erty and finances of the Brethren in Pennsylvania. 

The external work at Bethlehem was pressed with energy in spite 
of many perplexities and disadvantages. With new building opera- 
tions in view, the re-established saw-mill was kept running very 
regularly, notwithstanding the difficulty of cutting logs and getting 
them to the place in such times. Preparations were being made to 
build the large and substantial barn which was so constructed that, 
in later years, it was converted into dwellings and finally became 
one of the old business quarters fronting on the east side of Main 
Street and standing entire until 1871. When the first foundation 
stone was laid on June i, 1757, it was described as being situated 
"over from the mill-dam and directly down from the store, fronting 
on the line which passed the house occupied by the boys' school." 
Its length along the front was 114 feet, and it was planned to con- 

Acoliithi who are preparing for the ministry and now and then are made use of like Dea- 
cons." 90 (about) of the children at Bethlehem and Nazareth " have their parents abroad, 
mostly on the Gospel's account." 425 of the foregoing, under age. 

82 Indians, besides several young Indian women in the Sisters' House "besides the sava- 
ges who are going and coming and staying longer or shorter with us. ' 

4 He sailed on the Irene, commanded by Captain Jacobsen. He was accompanied by 
the sailors Jost Jensen and Andrew Schoute as passengers ; also George Ernest Menzinger 
who had come over in 1755 and now returned, and several other passengers not from Beth- 
lehem. This Moravian church-ship was the only vessel permitted to leave port after the 
embargo had been declared. She reached Dover in safety, April 1, and, September 15, was 
back again at New York without passengers for Bethlehem. 



352 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

tain dwelling apartments in the center for hostlers and teamsters, 
with barn space for grain and stabling below, on either side. 

Another enterprise that began to engage attention early in 1757, 
again concerned the Christian Indians living at Bethlehem. Soon 
after Boehler returned to Pennsylvania, bringing suggestions and 
plans from Europe about various matters, the question of perma- 
nently locating this residue of the Indian congregation began to be 
discussed, for their residence at Bethlehem was regarded as a mere 
temporary arrangement. It had been proposed to carry out Zin- 
zendorf's plan to establish an Indian village somewhere in the 
vicinity of Bethlehem. There were misgivings in the minds of some 
about the practicability of doing this. The uncertainty of the yet 
pending terms between the Government and the Indian tribes, the 
lack of hunting facilities for the Indians if settled down in the neigh- 
borhood — -this being unfavorable for their contentment — and par- 
ticularly the aversion of the people in the near-by settlements to 
having Indians living in such close proximity, were all objections in 
the minds of some, like Mack, whose opinions were of value. Nev- 
ertheless, the disposition to venture the experiment of thus coloniz- 
ing Christian Indians in the midst of civilization, even at such an 
unfavorable time, prevailed. The matter was broached to the Indians 
in a conference with them on March ro, and found favor. There- 
upon an address to the Governor was framed to be adopted, signed 
and sent by them, asking permission to so locate, and setting forth 
the reasons. It was forwarded, March 14, and on the 31st the Gov- 
ernor sent a favorable reply, after consultation with the Provincial 
Council. Reference was made, in his reply, to the lands in Wyo- 
ming and farther up on the Susquehanna, which, on the basis of the 
partial agreement at the last great Council in Easton, it was pro- 
posed to assign to the Indians remaining in the Province ; likewise to 
the offers that had been made them by the Six Nations, the accept- 
ance of either of which on their part would have been "very accept- 
able" to him. But such being not their wish, he says : "I shall with 
all my heart consent to your living with the Brethren, at the place 
proposed, provided that you do not thereby disoblige the Six 
Nations, nor the particular tribes you belong to." After admonish- 
ing them to live peaceably and give no offence to the neighborhood, 
the property in which was owned by individual people and not to 
be trespassed upon, he further says : "I would advise you to com- 
municate your intention and desire of residing at Bethlehem to the 



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1756 1762. 353 

Six Nations, and any other Indians you may be connected with, that 
all may know and agree to it." He finally assures them of Govern- 
ment protection and of his disposition to do them "any good offices." 
This cautious proviso that the Six Nations and "any other Indians" 
should concur was a safeguard against any possible new offence to 
the assuming Teedyuscung, in anticipation of the next Council. As 
it later clearly appeared, this wily schemer, in whose vindictive heart 
the failure of his attempts to draw these Indians away from the 
influence of the Moravian missionaries rankled, attempted to con- 
strain the Government, as one of his conditions, to become his agent 
to force them away, and thus enable him to accomplish his purpose 
at last. He even represented these Indians as being held prisoners 
against their wishes b}' the Brethren, and intimated that the Gov- 
ernment would do a good service by aiding him in liberating his 
people. Thus, in keeping Teedyuscung in mind and preparing to 
meet any arraignment on his part, the proverbial "back door" of 
escape, so commonly characteristic of official communications and 
acts of this kind, was left open. If Teedyuscung or the heads- of the 
Six Nations should, in subsequent negotiations, make this permis- 
sion given the Bethlehem Indians a new grievance, to delay the clos- 
ing of terms, the proviso on which it rested would then clearly leave 
the Government at liberty to recede from it and resort to the next 
best thing that might present itself as an expedient. In this, even 
more than in the implacable hostility of people to the location of the 
village, is to be sought the reason why the experiment of this Indian 
colony near Bethlehem could not result in permanent success. 

These dubious conditions of the Governor's answer did not deter 
the authorities at Bethlehem from proceeding with the undertaking. 
To the west of Bethlehem lay two tracts of land yet belonging to the 
Benezet estate, and steps were taken to purchase them. One, run- 
ning down to the river towards Solomon Jennings's place, ^ and 
embracing several hundred acres of the finest land in the region, 
was had in mind as the site of the village which, in pursuance of Zin- 
zendorf's suggestion, was in advance given the name Nain. The pur- 
chase of the land was made in May. More than a year elapsed, 
however, before the project was consummated and the Indian con- 
gregation finally settled there. On June 14, following the purchase 

5 The locality referred to is that known for many ye.ir* as the George Geissinger farm 
on the Lehigh, later occupied by Owen Mack. 
24 



354 A. HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the land, a site for the village was selected and staked off. The 
clearing of the spot furnished a large part of the winter fuel for 
Bethlehem, for on December lo, eighty men cut fifty cords of fire- 
wood there. On January 9, 1758, another site was selected, because 
it was discovered that the new highway from Easton to Reading, to 
the partial laying out of which, in 1755, reference has been made, 
would pass quite near, and this was deemed undesirable. Operations 
at the new site were retarded by further doubts and fears caused by 
the machinations of the unspeakable Teedyuscung, and by the strong 
dissatisfaction of people in the upper part of the township. 

Some of the Indians of Bethlehem went under escort to attend the 
treaty at Philadelphia in July, at the request of the Government — 
because Teedyuscung, whom the authorities were yet dreading and 
humoring, insisted upon it, to make it appear that these Indians were 
with him — and returned with new assurance of Government protec- 
tion, both against Indians and white men, in building their village. The 
first house had been erected, the loth of the previous June. Finally, 
on October 18, 1758, the chapel was dedicated and the village cere- 
moniously taken possession of by the Indian congregation. Thus 
began, under clouds of uncertainty, the brief history of Nain, near 
Bethlehem, in pursuance of Zinzendorf's plan of 1742. 

At the time when negotiations for the purchase of this land were 
opened in 1757, a state of general alarm existed between Bethlehem 
and the Blue Mountains in consequence of fresh outrages by prowl- 
ing savages, just beyond the mountains "back of Nazareth," on Sun- 
day, May I. Friedensthal and the Rose were once more overrun by 
refugees. Among the victims was the widow of Abraham Mueller, 
formerly of Bethlehem, and, while the Friedensthal mill was being 
built, cook for the workmen. After her house had been burned 
before her eyes, she and her son were carried off by these "French 
Indians," who headed for the far north-west. She was killed on the 
way. Her son, after being taken almost to Niagara, escaped in the 
night with another captive lad and succeeded in getting back to Tioga, 
There he was helped on his further way back to Bethlehem, which 
place he reached on June 22. This is an example of numerous thrill- 
ing and harrowing incidents of those months, referred to in the 
records at Bethlehem. Right in the midst of this new consternation, 
the Brethren held a Synod in Nazareth Hall, with that quiet deter- 
mination, when at all possible, to go on in the even tenor of their 
way, which so puzzled and sometimes even exasperated people in 



1756 1762. 355 

the neighborhood, and served to keep the old slanders about an 
understanding with the French and savages alive in some quarters. 
May 5, 1757, Bishops Boehler and Hehl — Bishop Spangenberg had 
gone to Nazareth the previous day — started from Bethlehem to the 
Synod "with a caravan of a hundred and twelve brethren and sisters 
afoot, in wagons and on horseback, under a strong guard of holy 
angels," escorted, however, also by several of the appointed senti- 
nels and six Indian guards. This Synod was in session until May 9. 
Spangenberg took up his official residence for some months in the 
Hall and Boehler lived at Bethlehem, giving more attention to local 
details. 

The anxious feeling in the neighborhood increased during June 
and July, as the time for the third treaty with the Indians at 
Easton drew near, and the gravitation of bands from various points 
towards the Forks of the Delaware again set in. It seemed as if 
the region were a great mass of tinder and only a spark was needed 
to set it all ablaze. Therefore, what threatened to be the dropping 
of such a spark caused no little anxiety among all who realized the 
danger and the great importance of the issues depending upon this 
new Council, and greatly disturbed the Governor and the authorities 
generally. On July 8, the day which had been appointed by the Gov- 
ernor as a day of fasting and prayer, when the thoughts of all were 
particularly turned to the existing causes of uneasiness, an unoffend- 
ing baptized Indian, William Tatemy, son of the old chief, Moses 
Tatemy, was deliberately shot, on the way to Easton, without cause 
or provocation, by a reckless and foolish young fellow of the neigh- 
borhood, who evidently merely desired the glory of killing an Indian. 
He was not killed outright, but was severely wounded in the thigh. 
He was taken to the house of John Jones, east of Bethlehem, and 
Dr. Matthew Otto was quickly summoned. Col. Jacob Arndt, under 
whose escort he and other Indians were being conducted through the 
Irish Settlement from Fort Allen to Easton, sent a special message 
on this deplorable occurrence to the Governor. Dr. Otto was 
anxiously urged to spare no effort to save his life. With the atten- 
tion of whites and Indians alike fastened upon him, he lay at the 
Jones farm, hovering between life and death, when the great Council 
opened at Easton, on July 21, 1757. The doctor sent several special 
bulletins on the case to the Governor, at his request. On the 26th, 
Teedyuscung, who did not fail to make use of the incident, formally 
drew the Governor's attention to it and demanded that if Tatemy 
died, the perpetrator of the outrage be tried by due process of law. 



356 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Governor, of course, had to promise this. To the aged father 
of the wounded man he said "we have employed the most skillful 
doctor that is amongst us to take care of him, and we pray that the 
Almighty would bless the medicines that are administered for his 
cure." No wonder that Dr. Otto asked the people of Bethlehem 
to support his efforts with their prayers. The Council proceeded 
under the special tension which this caused, while five hundred 
troops were stationed within easy reach to quell any outbreak of vio- 
lence precipitated by either Indians or white men, it being equally 
likely to proceed from either side. The Council and the last inter- 
views came to a close on Sunday, August 7, the treaty of peace bind- 
ing all parties had been sealed and young Tatemy yet Hved, when 
all dispersed. Then the attention and skill that had held his life to 
that point served no longer against the inevitable and, on August 
9, he died. At the earnest desire of his old father, his remains were 
interred, on the loth, with the rites of the Church, in the little ceme- 
tery on the south side of the river at Bethlehem by the Moravian 
clergy. 

The results of that Council brought, of course, a feeling of great 
relief to Bethlehem, as well as to many another place. On August 
3, Anthony Benezet brought word from Easton that the deputies of 
ten Indian nations had joined in taking hold of the peace-belt and 
that reservations of land had been pledged them in Wyoming, at 
Shamokin and beyond the Alleghenies. On Sunday, August 7, the 
Governor came to Bethlehem and put up at the Crown for the night. 
Bishop Boehler went over to pay his respects and invite him to 
accept official hospitality in the town, but this time he preferred to 
remain at the inn. Bishop Spangenberg came down from Nazareth 
and early the next morning went across the river, before the Gover- 
nor started for Philadelphia, to request official directions in reference 
to the "strange Indians" who persisted in loitering about Bethle- 
hem, as well as to those who came at intervals to purchase eatables 
and other articles, and occasioned much annoyance. He received 
the promise that the matter should be laid before the Commissioners 
and the Assembly, and then the Governor left. That very afternoon 
more than a hundred Indians, on their way from Easton, halted 
about the tavern on the south side, and it was deemed prudent to 
double the guard in Bethlehem that night. Two days later, Teedy- 
uscung made his appearance with Paxnous, Abraham and others of 
prominence. Great relief was felt when finally, on August 12, all 



1756 1762. 357 

but a few of them took their departure. A striking instance of the 
disagreeable circumstances attending the traveling through of such 
squads of savages, apart from the matter of danger, occurred the 
last week in August. A band of Nanticokes who had been in Beth- 
lehem, the end of July, 1757, appeared again, returning to their 
country from Lancaster. They were friendly Indians and had brought 
a message of condolence on the Mahoning massacre and assurance 
that they had no part in nor sympathy with such outrages. Three 
of them were chiefs. During the interval between the two calls at 
Bethlehem these chiefs had died of small-pox. The rest of the band 
were bearing their skeletons with them for interment in their own 
country. The flesh of the small-pox victims had been scraped from 
the bones and these were carried along wrapped in blankets. This 
had to be endured by the people with whom they came into contact 
at Bethlehem. 

The outcome of the treaty at Easton by no means relieved Beth- 
lehem of undesirable Indian guests. Teedyuscung, in the conviction 
that he would be more comfortable, could maintain his apparent 
prestige better and conduct the negotiations between the Govern- 
ment and the Indian embassies from the near and remote tribes 
more advantageously by remaining in the vicinity, secured the con- 
currence of the Government to his establishing headquarters in the 
Forks of the Delaware. Then he sought and obtained the assent of 
the Bethlehem authorities to his plan of settling down for the winter 
at Bethlehem, on the south side of the river, where a cabin was built 
for him by the Brethren. Undesirable as this was, in view of his 
well-known sentiments about the dweUing of the "Moravian Indians" 
at Nain, and the dangerous influence he might exercise by living 
near, it was nevertheless concluded by the Moravian officials that, 
all things considered, he would be more easily held to the promises 
he had made at the treaty and be less likely to do serious harm here 
than in the Indian country. 

Thus, by understanding between Bethlehem and the Government, 
the "Delaware King" planted himself, for the winter, right at the 
place where his presence had been most dreaded. He was on his 
good behavior now, so far as his relations and influence in the fur- 
ther complications with yet dissatisfied Indians were concerned, and 
it was to his personal interest to do his utmost in these matters 
towards the establishment of peace. His personal vanity was also 
gratified, for now nearly every Indian deputation to the Government 



358 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

passed Bethlehem and took counsel with Teedyuscung. His lodge 
thus became an objective point of pilgrimages from various tribes, 
even from those far off "on the Ohio." The other Indians who 
remained at and about the Crown Inn were, for the most part, a 
drunken, brawling and thieving lot, and sorely tried the good Breth- 
ren who were in charge of the inn and the other property on the 
south side. The final deliverance did not come until well on in the 
spring of 1758. May 7 of that year, Teedyuscung returned from 
one of his numerous journeys to Philadelphia with William Edmonds 
and brought the word that now, by arrangement with the Govern- 
ment, all the Indians yet tarrying at the place would remove to 
Wyoming, where a town would be built for them. But he had to 
admit the failure of his final effort to accomplish his pertinacious 
scheme to secure the removal with them of the remaining Gnaden- 
huetten Indians through Government orders. On May 15, two 
Commissioners with about fifty troops arrived from Philadelphia, 
as an escort, and the next day the whole camp, with Teedyuscung, 
finally set out for Wyoming. Only three baptized Indians remained 
behind, with their families. By special permission of the Govern- 
ment and agreement with the Brethren, Nicodemus, mentione^d 
before this, was permitted to settle near Nazareth, and Nathanael 
near Gnadenthal, while another, Jonathan, was allowed to build a 
hut near Friedensthal. 

As the figure of Teedyuscung recedes from view, with the 
departure of this caravan, he may be dismissed from these pages. 
A strange blending of qualities is presented in the character of that 
extraordinary Indian whose spirit no force or artifice of white men 
could subdue, and who, at last, was conquered only by the power 
of the baneful "fire water" which he loved too well, assisted, perhaps, 
by the fire-brand of the treacherous assassin applied to his cabin 
when he was lying prone under the clutch of the alcoholic demon." 

None of the varying traditions concerning the further circum- 
stances of his end will ever be verified. Perhaps, as some hold, the 
heads of the Six Nations had a hand in it. Perhaps — and this is 
more likeh' — he was foully dealt with by jealous and revengeful 
associates who had resented his assumptions and superior influence, 

6 The Bethlehem diary has this brief record on April 25. 1763 : " We heard from Wyo- 
ming that the Indian chief, Teedyuscung, had come to a miserable end through a fire which 
broke out in his house, and that thereupon the other Indians, who were all drunken, set fire 
to the whole town and laid it in ashes." 



''^" "?"V9W !^ffi> o> I'^Sffe' "■-.?«l*«' n-T^ 



T '■tl* 





1756 1762. 359 

or charged to his agreements with the Government, features of the 
settlements of 1757 which they repudiated but had to submit to. 
There are indications that, after the second treaty at Easton, he 
felt the current of such sentiments towards him emanating from 
some who were not fully in accord with the settlement and on whom 
his hold was not strong, and that he did not feel his life entirely 
secure. Perhaps the fate of the Shawanese Indian who led the 
attack on Gnadenhuetten and carried off Susanna Nitschmann as a 
prize, and who was assassinated by one of his own people, haunted 
him; and that the dread of a Hke end had something to do with his 
plan to spend the winter of 1757-58 at Bethlehem, until some tangible 
results of the third treaty for the benefit of the Indians of Wyoming 
should appear, to mollify those who were dissatisfied. There were 
qualities in his nature that made him a heroic figure. There were 
others that made him appear more as a mere blustering braggart. 
He was an astute diplomate, with whom the Government officials 
found it difficult to trifle. He cherished a romantic sentiment, as 
the champion of the name and claim of his ancestors. He was a 
forceful and eloquent orator. At the same time he was weakly vain 
in trifling things, and affected a mock state which appeared grotesque 
and has caused some to think of him more as a buffoon whom the 
Government had, by force of circumstances, to cajole. He was 
religious at times, but of very frail moral fibre. As men will always 
differ about the questions at issue between him and the Government, 
they will also take almost opposite views of Teedyuscung, some 
having him in mind as he is depicted by those who present only his 
worst quahties or purvey the ludicrous stories invented about him, 
while others exalt him to association with the heroic romance of the 
"Indian Rock" on the Wissahicon. 

At the Crown Inn, where host and guests had so long to endure 
the disagreeable proximity of these disorderly campers, some 
improvements were made to render the house more pleasant to 
genteel guests, although even before this, it was the best country 
tavern, according to current testimony, in all the region. The erection 
of the new inn on the north side was delayed longer than had been 
expected. Among other things, a better stable was built and a new 
well was dug, and at the end of November, 1757, the rope rigging 
for the ferry was substituted for the much slower process of poling. 

Ephraim Culver, who had been burned out of house and home at 
the beginning of the Indian outbreak, had charge of the inn from 



360 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

October 18, 1756, until June 3, 1757, when he removed to Nazareth. 
He was the third who had his troubles with those Indians. His 
predecessor, from April, 1756, Nicholas Schaeffer, and, before that, 
John Godfrey Grabs, who, in 1752, had followed John Leighton, the 
successor of Hartmann Verdriess, had both had their trying exper- 
iences with them, and likewise their burdens in quartering panic- 
stricken refugees. Culver was succeeded temporarily, in June, 1757, 
by George Klein, the former owner of the site of Lititz, with several 
assistants. September 15, 1757, Andrew Horn took charge, with 
two single men as assistants; Peter Worbas, who had escaped from 
Gnadenhuetten, and who now gained some experience preparatory 
to his appointment as the first keeper of the new Bethlehem Inn, 
and August Hermann Francke ; these assistants being followed a year 
later by John Garrison, who principally served as ferryman, and 
John Lischer, who thus served an appreticeship at what became his 
chief business. He, in 1762, became one of the succession of regular 
landlords of the Crown, in 1765, succeeded Culver at the Rose and 
remained there until it was closed as a public house in March, 1772, 
when he became the first host of the Nazareth Inn.'' 

Horn was the landlord who had the gratification of seeing the 
last of these undesirable frequenters of his kitchen and tap-room 
depart, and of renovating the Crown for more welcome guests. The 
need of proper hotel accommodations at Bethlehem was becoming 
more urgent and at last, on May 25, 1758, the corner-stone of the 
"new tavern" on the north side was laid. Before June the cellar 
walls were laid up and much material for the building was gotten 
ready ; but then, in consequence of a variety of interruptions, the 
work moved very slowly, and it was well on in the autumn of 1760 
before it was finished. It was opened, however, for public enter- 
tainment in the previous spring, when it was yet unfinished. Peter 
Worbas and his wife moved down from Gnadenthal and took charge 
on March 24, 1760. In July it was still uncompleted, when the local 
authorities were considering the matter of procuring a license from 
Court. A mere "permit" was at first taken out at the September 
term, when the name "The Sun" was given it, this name first 

7 These items about those old time inn-keepers may be found of use liy some, in tracing 
connections in other records, and, as regards the Crown, serve to correct some inaccuracies 
in print, in giving the succession. Sometimes allusions are made to a tavern, in journals of 
travel, by the mere name of the host, and it is often desirable, in tracing an itinerary, to be 
able to identify the public house thus referred to. 




THE SUN INN. BUILT 1758 
1763-1816 
1816-1851 



1756 1762. 3^1 

appearing in the records, on September 26, 1760, in connection with 
reference to the appointment of a jury to improve the King's Road, 
on petition from Bethlehem, "from the Monocacy, where the Gnaden- 
huetten road passes it, to the new tavern called The Sun, and to the 
Lehigh a mile below Bethlehem." The inn was not entirely finished 
and fully equipped until the following spring. Then, on June 17, 
1761, Matthew Schropp, Warden, made application to the Court for 
a regular Hcense, Peter Worbas being vouched for as a suitable and 
trustworthy person to keep a public house.** 

The year 1758, to which many of the matters sketched in the 
preceding pages belonged, closed in Bethlehem with special services 
of praise and thanksgiving, in which the review of events in the 
country at large was combined with the remembrance of signal 
mercies and blessings experienced in the local situation. The decisive 
strugg;e between the English and French arms in the West, resulting 
in the abandonment of Fort Duquesne by the French in November, 
had settled the question of English supremacy west to the Ohio. 
Another great Council between the chiefs of the Six Nations and the 
Delawares, and the English authorities empowered to treat with 
them, had taken place at Easton in October. It had resulted in a 
more decided prospect of weaning the tribes that were at variance 
with the Government away from French interests than had before 
appeared. The Moravian missionary, Frederick Post, whose move- 
ments, as Government agent to deal with the western Indians, were 
followed with much anxious, prayerful interest at Bethlehem, had 
safely and successfully passed the supreme episode of his hazardous 
and inestimable service, when the most vital issues of the war seemed 
to be in his hands and involved in the fate of his person. The knowl- 
edge of this had reached Bethlehem before the close of the year." 

8 Jasper Payne succeeded Worbas as inn-keeper, August, 1762, Worbas part of the time 
assisting him. besides Daniel Kunckler, who had been connected with the old store and the 
ferry; John Rubel, Peter Goetge and Jost Jensen, previously a sailor on the Irene. Payne was 
succeeded, at the close of 1766, by John Andrew Albrecht, the musician mentioned before 
this, who perhaps used his gifts in this respect as a special attraction. Jost Jensen, the sailor, 
followed on June, 1771. He was the landlord during the most eventful years of the Revo- 
lutionary period, to April, 17S1, when he was succeded by John Christian Ebert, who had 
the honor of entertaining General Washington. The next landlord, from June I, 1790, to 
midsummer, 1799, was Abraham Levering. The next, at the opening of the new century, 
was John Lennert, June, 1799, to June, 1805. 

9 The importance of Post's services, at a most critical period, is well-known to all who are 
familiar with the history of those times. They have often been enlarged upon by historians, 
and his journal of that momentous tour to the Allegheny River may be read in the Pennsyl- 



362 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Right heartily did the people, therefore, observe the day of thanks- 
giving appointed by proclamation of the Governor, on December 28. 

In the review of the year, on December 31,3 serious loss that had 
befallen the Church the preceding year, but had not become known 
at Bethlehem until May 18, 1758, was recalled. This was the cap- 
ture by a French privateer, off Cape Breton, November 30, 1757, and 
the sinking, on January 12, 1758, of the church ship, the Irene, which 

vania Archives, Vol III. In advance of the army of General Forbes, marching to attempt 
the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Post had succeeded in his mission to the Indians. This 
success demoralizing the French garrison, they set fire to the fort and retreated, before the 
EngUsh army had the opportunity to strike the blow. It was the pivot on which the whole 
struggle in America turned. Frank Cowan, in '■^Southwestern Pejjnsylvatiia in Song and 
Story." closes a verse which treats of the valiant determination with which the words of the 
dying Forbes, the " Head of Iron," inspired his army, moving to the intended conquest, 
with two lines on Post which sum up his part in the issue : 

" But Ihe Man of Prayer, and not of boast, 
Had spoken first in Frederick Post." 
The inside history of Post's critical situation at the supreme moment, as related by him 
in a communication to his brethren, which reached Bethlehem after the close of the year 
and was read to the people, January 19, 1759, when he was on his way home, vividly pre- 
sents the situation at that juncture. Not being accessible in print or familiar, like the matter 
contained in public documents, it may be reproduced here, as given in the records in the 
third person from Post's account, to show under what precarious circumstances this Mora- 
vian missionary turned "the fortunes of war." "In November, when the English army 
moved from Loyalhanning, he and his traveling companions were brought by a convoy of 
fifteen men to Kaskasking, the Indian headquarters, where the Indians, and especially the 
chiefs, were very glad to see him again. When the convoy set out on its return, he sent a letter 
to be given by the Lieutenant to the General. The convoy, while on the way, was attacked 
by the French, the Lieutenant was taken prisoner and Post's letter was rendered, with its 
meaning perverted, into the Indian language. Post was represented as having written to 
the General that when he had beaten the French, he should summon the Indians to a treaty 
and then massacre them. This alleged translation was sent by the French to Kaskasking 
and communicated there, and, while the chiefs refused to believe that he had so written, the 
young men were wrought up to such a pitch, that from the i6th to the 20th of November, 
at the advice of the chiefs, he did not venture out of his hut. (He was in the midst of 
Indians with no other white man near.) The chiefs finally insisted upon it that the French 
Commandant should produce the original letter, which he had to do. When the Indians 
got possession of it and — several being able to read English— found just the opposite in it, 
and made this known, their rage was changed to friendliness, and they accepted the propo- 
sals of peace which he brought them in the name of the Government. Afterwards, when 
the French also came with a belt, not a single Indian would accept it. The French were so 
frightened by this, that the next day, they abandoned Fort Duquesne. Upon this he could 
go his way in peace, after he had recommended to the Indians that they should first establish 
the outward peace and then he would bring them a yet greater peace " — the "Gospel of 
Peace." 



I7S6 1762. 363 

had brought so many of the Bethlehem people to America. She had 
sailed from NewYork, November 20, 1757, in charge of Captain Jacob- 
sen, on her fourteenth and last voyage. The first satisfactory account 
of this misfortune was received on June 8, through a letter of April 6, 
written from Bristol, England, by the Rev. L. T. Nyberg. Captain 
Jacobsen, the sailors Hans Nielsen and Benjamin Garrison, with 
Henry Ollringshaw and William Schmalling, who had come over in 
April, 1756, and were on a return journey to Europe, were taken to 
France, while Andrew Schoute, the veteran sailor, also a passenger 
intending to remain in Europe, was left at Louisburg, sick, by the 
prize-crew, which through mismanagement ran the vessel on the 
rocks. On September 29, Schoute got back to Bethlehem and 
related his hard experiences and remarkable adventures. A letter 
was also received from London with the information that Nielsen 
and Ollringshaw had died in captivity, and that Jacobsen, Garrison 
and Schmalling were yet prisoners, the middle of June. Captain 
Jacobsen finally got back to New York, September 15, 1759, on the 
ship Concord, of which he had command until the fourth church ship, 
the Hope, was built in 1760. 

While there had been no arrivals from Europe since December, 
1756, some new names appear in the records between that time and 
the close of 1758, of persons who figured in capacities of interest and 
importance. One of these who deserves mention was the old organ- 
builder John Gottlob Klemm, whose early history, in Germany, pre- 
sents interesting associations with Zinzendorf and Herrnhut. He 
had left that place with an alienated heart, come to Pennsylvania with 
a company of Schwenkfelders in 1735, and become a Separatist. 
Although some years later again on cordial terms with the Brethren, 
he now first returned to regular connection with their Church. The 
work upon which he entered at Bethlehem and Nazareth, in conjunc- 
tion with David Tanneberger, later, for many years, the best-known 
member of his craft in Pennsylvania, is among the most interesting 
industries in this Moravian hive of varied activities. Tilling the soil 
and some other employments might seem more important, but more 
interest attaches to the few notices found of men who in those olden 
times built organs for the churches in town and country, and thus, 
by their skill, helped to provide the means of cultivating the noblest 
of the fine arts among the people, in the service of religion, when the 
desire for something fine asserted itself amid conditions so largely 
rude and coarse. "Father" Klemm had been occupied at his handi- 



364 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

craft in New York, where he stood in cordial relations to the Mora- 
vian minister and members. He wrote to Bethlehem at the end of 
September, 1757, expressing a desire to settle down and spend his 
declining days here. He was welcomed and, on November 25, arrived 
on the Bethlehem wagon from New Brunswick. He was soon busy 
putting the Bethlehem church-organ into repair, and directly associ- 
ated with himself David Tanneberger, a skillful joiner, who had come 
over with John Nitschmann's colony in 1749. With him as an 
assistant, he went to Nazareth, March i, 1758, to build an organ for 
the chapel of the settlement in Nazareth Hall. Establishing their 
work-shop in the Hall, they also built a new organ for Bethlehem, 
which was set up, January 20, 1759. They had their organ-factory at 
Nazareth until the room was needed for dwelling accommodations. 
Then they transferred it, August 6, 1760, to the Burnside house, up 
the Monocacy from Bethlehem. How long they continued to work 
there is not clear. They evidently built other small organs during 
those several years, but for what places does not appear. There are 
repeated references to excursions by Tanneberger to different places 
in search of lumber suitable for organ-building. They had their shop 
in Bethlehem at the close of 1761, and on May 5, 1762, the old master 
of the craft departed this life, after imparting his knowledge to his 
skillful assistant.^" 



1° November 17, 1761, the organ previously used at Bethlehem was conveyed to Lititz, 
and Tanneberger went along to set it up. That was the organ brought to Bethlehem from 
Philadelphia by Klemm. set up by him in June, 1746, and put in repair in 1751 by Robert 
Harttafel, of Lancaster County, as noted in these pages. It has commonly been referred to 
by writers as built by Gustavus Hesselius, the Swedish organ-builder and painter connected 
with the Moravians in Philadelphia for a while, and spoken of as the " first organ-builder 
in America." Possibly he and Klemm were associated in this handicraft at one time in 
Philadelphia. Hesselius died there. May 25, 1755. Harttafel, the third of this group of 
early Moravian organ-builders, passed the later years of his life at Lancaster and died there, 
April 29, 1802. Tanneberger, the best-known of them, who built organs for many churches 
in Pennsylvania, in New York — e.g., in 1767 at Albany — in Maryland and Virginia, and, as 
it seems, in other provinces, removed to Lititz in August, 1765, where he had his factory 
until his death. He was associated in later years with John Philip Bachmann who came 
over from Herrnhut in 1793, to learn the trade with him, became his son-inlaw and, in 
November, 1799, went to Salem, N.C., to set up the organ they had built for the church at 
that place. Bachmann's son, Ernst Julius, also learned the trade of his father in the old 
factory at Lititz, but, the business declining, he gave it up and, in 1827, went to Lebanon to 
teach school. The last organ built by Tanneberger was one for the Lutheran church at 
York, Pa. While setting it up, he was stricken with paralysis, fell from a scaffold and died. 
May 19, 1804. He had been negotiated with to build the organ for the Bethlehem church, 



1756 1762. 36s 

In the spring of 1758, one who was greatl}- beloved at Bethlehem 
and held in reverence by all who knew him passed away. This was 
the patriarch of the place, David Nitschmann, Sr., conspicuously 
identified with it from the beginning, and at the time of his decease, 
the nominal owner in law of all its real estate. For a few years he 
had been living in quiet retirement, incapacitated by the infirmities of 
old age, for participation in the activities of field, workshop and 
garden in which he continued, however, to manifest great interest. A 
large part of his time had been given to prayer, bearing upon his 
heart all the people, old and young, all the concerns of the Church, 
and particularly the poor Indians rescued from savagery by the efforts 
of the Brethren; these being an especial object of his solicitude. To 
the Indians at Bethlehem and to the children Father Nitschmann gave 
more of the kindly sympathy with which his heart overflowed, than 
to any other persons. His peaceful end came on April 14, 1758, and 
on the i6th his remains were laid to rest at the spot in the Bethlehem 
cemetery where the little slab now bears his honored name. His 
nephew, Bishop David Nitschmann, who at this time was sojourning 
at Lititz, helping in the opening of the settlement, started on a visit 
to Bethlehem to see the patriarch once more, having heard that he 
was very feeble. At Oley he was met with the tidings of his departure. 
Not being able, therefore, to see him or attend the funeral, he pro- 
ceeded leisurely on his way, calling elsewhere meanwhile, and reached 
Bethlehem the following week. 

During the year 1759 various preparatory steps were taken towards 
the reconstruction of the system of administration and the methods 
of associate life and activity that would bring the General Economy 
to an end with ease and smoothness. The initiative was wisely taken 
some time in advance, in a quiet way, and the change was carefully 
prepared for by those who were in control when there was no special 
discontent nor striking evidence of decadence, instead of waiting until 
the pressure of dissatisfaction among the people might compel hasty 
action, or a state of internal weakness and inefficiency might be 
produced by the retention of methods that had outlived their useful- 
ness and no longer served their purpose. Stampeded measures, ill- 
digested plans and disintegration through neglect of vigilant control 

then in course of erection. The organ at present in the Nazareth Moravian church was 
built by him in 1793. It was rebuilt in 1898. That in the Moravian church in South Beth- 
lehem, the former Lititz church organ was built by him in 1787. It was transferred to 
South Lethlehem in l8£o. 



366 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

were all to be guarded against in a situation which involved the 
welfare of so many souls, the interests of such an extensive work, and 
the safety of so much valuable property. Many of the preliminary 
steps were quietly planned by Bishop Spangenberg during the months 
when he had his headquarters in a partial retreat at Nazareth Hall, 
and his efficient coadjutor, Bishop Boehler, was devoting his attention 
to the affairs of the hour. Meanwhile a clear understanding was 
gradually being reached in reference to the eventual plans to be 
carried out when the time came, through correspondence \vith Europe, 
and such preparations as called for the atteiition of the general 
authorities there, were also being made while Nathanael Seidel was 
yet tarrying abroad. 

One of the features of those timel)' preparations was the 
modification, to such extent as was feasible, of the common 
housekeeping arrangements; relaxing the almost military regime 
which the more adequate appointments that now existed made less 
necessary, and introducing changes, little by little, in the direction of 
a larger prevalence of distinct households among married people. 
This required the provision of increased dwelling accommodations 
for families. In November, 1758, the water-tower house which had 
been serving alternately as a home for the boys and for a number of 
the married men who had quarters there together, was turned into a 
tenement for as many families as could be accommodated; while 
the former pottery building was converted into a dwelling for the 
widowers who had a home together. 

In the spring of 1759, it was concluded to use some of the 
apartments of Nazareth Hall for school purposes and to trans- 
fer the large boys' school from Bethlehem to that place. 
This school was left, at the last mention of it in these pages, 
quartered in the large stone house fronting on the present 
Main Street, as described in a previous chapter, where the Moravian 
Publication Office now stands. With this move, a series of other 
changes was planned and carried into effect in June. On the 5th of 
that month the little girls of the nursery at Nazareth were brought to 
Bethlehem and quartered temporarily in the Community House. The 
next morning the boys who were to move to Nazareth — there were 
a hundred and eleven of them, with nineteen tutors and attendants — 
took ceremonious leave of their house at Bethlehem. Drawn up in 
order in front of the building, they started in procession, headed 
by the orchestra of boys with their instructor Albrecht, for the pro- 
cession out of Bethlehem. After they had sung several hymns, they 



1756 1762. ' 3^7 

formed in line and marched, double file, towards the Nazareth road, 
while a farewell chorale was rendered by the trombonists stationed 
on the terrace of the Brethren's House. They proceeded, with their 
own music, "to the end of the lane" — the then eastern end of what 
is now Broad Street — where the smallest boys were taken into the 
wagons waiting to convey them farther. The rest of the company 
marched several miles beyond that point, and the oldest boys all the 
way to Nazareth. There they were formally received and distributed 
into room-companies. Thus began the school-history of Nazareth 
Hall, with Adolph Eckesparre, who had come to Pennsylvania with 
Bishop Boehler in December, 1756, as head-master, under the general 
direction of John Michael Graff who was yet stationed at Nazareth. 
At the close of the year 1759, John Christopher Francke, who had 
formerly been at the head of the school on the farm of Henry Antes 
and latterly had been serving as chaplain at Gnadenthal, took charge 
of the institution. 

When the boys were transferred to Nazareth, the house they 
had vacated at Bethlehem, which had been known for a few 
years as the "Boys' Institute,'' became the "Girls' Institute." On 
June 8, the boarding-school for girls — a hundred and three girls 
in charge of sixteen sisters — was transferred from the bell-turret 
house on Church Street to this building. In the parlance of the time 
it came to be spoken of as the new Kinderhaus, their former house 
being the old Kinderhmis — "Old Seminary." On June 14, the twenty- 
three little nursery girls brought from Nazareth on the 5th were 
domiciled in the second story of the bell-turret house, in which a 
room was also assigned to the company of "older girls" of Beth- 
lehem who were no longer school-girls. Finally on June 18, the 
thirteen girls of the Httle boarding-school on the Whitefield house 
premises at Nazareth were brought to Bethlehem and given another 
room of the old Kinderhaus. With this transfer of two hundred and 
forty-five boys and girls, the distinct school character of Bethlehem 
and Nazareth as seats of boarding-schools for girls and for boys 
respectively began to appear more definitely; for all the grades and 
divisions of girls were now at Bethlehem, while all the boys were 
at Nazareth, the little nursery boys being retained there in this plan. 

Considerable more space thus also became available for placing 
private families in parts of both of the buildings at Bethlehem as well 
as of those at Nazareth. One of the log houses next to the Whitefield 
house was now vacant for other use, while the widows continued to 
occupy the other one. Their cramped quarters and the distance from 



368 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the place of worship for Nazareth, at this time no longer in the White- 
field house but in Nazareth Hall, led to the removal of some of the 
aged and infirm of these women to an apartment in the latter building, 
when the organ-builders removed their work-shop to the Burnside 
house, in the summer of 1760, as stated. On June 9 of that year, 
the project of building a large house, to be a home for widows, 
adjoining the Sisters' House at Bethlehem, as an important addition 
to the permanent central institutions of the place, with the increase 
and contemplated re-arrangement of the population in view, was 
discussed in a general Church Council; but the way did not seem 
open to undertake it at that time, much as the crowded condition 
called for it.^^ 

Early in 1760, provision for Indian converts again claimed 
attention at Bethlehem, for it was becoming evident that another 
place besides Nain would have to be selected to colonize, at least 
some of them. On February 11, the missionaries Martin Mack and 
Joachim Sensemann went up beyond the Blue Mountains to inspect 
the proposed site of another Indian village, a few miles north of where 
the former village of Meniolagomeka had been situated, at a locality 
which had formerly been given the name Friedensthal — vale of 
peace — by some Moravian settlers from Philadelphia, but which in 
rude violation of this name, became the theatre of one of the appalling 
tragedies enacted by hostile savages in that awful December of 1755. 
In that devasted neighborhood the Church authorities purchased a 
body of very nearly 1400 acres of land that had been owned by the 
leader of those unfortunate people, Frederick Hoeth,^^ and by his 
son-in-law, Christian Boemper, lying along the little stream that 
became known as Hoeth's Creek, which was then changed into Head's 

" A total of 1013 persons comprised the population of Bethlehem and the Nazareth 
places at the end of 1759. Bethlehem had 618, Nazareth 26S, Gnadenthal 34, Christians- 
brunn 75 (single men and older boys), Friedensthal 15, the Rose 3. 

12 Frederick Hoeth, Jacob Weiss — grand-father of him who founded Weissport, where 
the second Gnadenhuetten and then Fort Allen had been — and some other Philadelphia 
Moravians and their friends bought adjacent tracts of land in that neighborliood in 1750. 
Hoeth, the leader, and several others settled there. Weiss, it seems, did not. Hoeth's was 
the chief plantation. The massacre that occurred there, December 10, 1755, was spoken of 
as the massacre at Hoeth's. He and his wife were killed and three of their daughters were 
carried off by the Indians. Christian Boemper was also murdered during a subsequent 
raid. One of their daughters, Mariana, was forced by (he imminent prospect of torture and 
death in the flames, to become the wife of an Indian. After many thrilling adventures and 
extensive wanderings with the savages, even as far as Pittsburg, she finally escaped and 
reached Bethlehem with her child, October 17, 1759, at the very time when steps were being 
taken to found this mission station at her desolate home. 



1756 1/62. 369 

Creek. The Indians had called the neighborhood and the stream 
Wechquetank, from the name they gave to a certain willow that grew 
along its banks. There, in the midst of neglected fields, with the 
dismal ruins of farm houses, barns, blacksmith-shop, grist and saw- 
mill not far away, telling of Friedensthal laid waste, the Brethren 
hoped to again propagate the gospel of peace. 

April 23, 1760, Sensemann and Shebosh, with more than thirty of 
the Nain Indians and several who had been permitted to sojourn at 
Gnadenthal, went "up to Hoeth's place" to put in a crop and build 
cabins. On May 6, the first rude dwelling was erected for the accom- 
modation of the missionaries — Sensemann, minister, and Shebosh, 
warden. Other buildings soon arose and on June 26, the meeting- 
house was dedicated. They preserved the old Indian name associated 
with the neighborhood and called the village Wechquetank." Bishop 
Spangenberg who returned to Bethlehem May 22, after an absence 
of a year in North Carolina, went up with the missionary Schmick 
on June 12, to see the new Indian village. A week later Schmick 
took charge of Nain and Mack, relieved of that duty, went up, on 
June 24, to inspect Wechquetank. On October 17, the missionary 
Grube settled there to carry on the work while engaged with 
important linguistic labors. Thus there were again frequent journeys 
between Bethlehem and the mountains, and the countenances of men 
in the settlement between, who saw it, again grew dark, and again 
there were mutterings and threats. 

Little attention was paid to these, but as the year 1760 drew to a 
close, a new shadow^ of another kind fell upon Bethlehem. On 
December i, general dismay was occasioned by the discovery that 
small-pox had broken out in the Sisters' House and that twelve 
of the older girls, who occupied apartments there, were down with 
the disease. The records state that it was the first visitation of this 
dread malady in fourteen years. It is not hard to imagine what a 
serious matter such an epidemic was, with so many people living 



13 Spelled also, and perhaps more in accordance with the sound, Wekquitank. The spot, 
on the eastern part of the 1400 acre tract, at which the village was built, on the north side 
of the creek, was about eight miles from the site of Meniolagomeka, northward, near the 
present village of Gilbert, a little way off from the road. The grave-yard was located 
about twenty rods from the meeting-house, farther up the hill. The exact site was not 
known for many years until, in 1S99, discoveries by Mr. Frank Kunkel, of Nazareth, led 
him and other officers of the Moravian Historical Society to investigate further and ascer- 
tain the location quite definitely. 

25 



370 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in close quarters in large companies. There was an absence of the 
customary Christmas festivities, it having been decided to merely 
have a quiet observance of the festival, separately, in the several insti- 
tutions where none were sick, and to omit that of the little nursery 
girls entirely. On December 30, the doctor reported a hundred and 
three cases, and the year was closed in anxiety and with much prayer. 

On January 12, seven rooms were filled with patients, a number 
having died. It is stated that at a certain stage of convalescence they 
were transferred to one of the "family rooms." At the end of January 
the whole number of cases had reached a hundred and eighty. Six 
children, but none of the adults, had died during the month. After 
the epidemic had run its course and the last patient had recovered, 
thanksgiving services were held on March 9 and the children were 
gathered together to have a special lovefeast instead of that missed at 
Christmas. But a week later it was learned that the disease had 
broken out among the older boj^s who lived at Christiansbrunn. 
From there it spread to the large school in Nazareth Hall where it 
did its worst during the month of May. When it came to an end, 
the latter part of June, special thanksgiving services were held there 
also. 

During the year 1761, Bethlehem was spared all danger, as well as 
all annoyance, from Indian disturbances, and throughout the regions 
that had been so greatly afflicted it could be said that "the land had 
rest." It was believed that the settlements at last made with the 
tribes west of the Alleghenies, and the unmistakable evidence that 
the French cause was waning in America, would prevent further 
trouble. Therefore the evacuation of the frontier forts along the 
Kittatinny Mountains was ventured. On January 20, the last troops 
at Fort Allen were paid off and discharged. Justice Horsfield and 
William Edmonds went up from Bethlehem, under Government 
instructions, to take an inventory of the ammunition. On April 27, 
Horsfield, by appointment, regularly declared its evacution on the 
spot and officially turned the property back into possession of the 
Brethren thi-ough the hand of Gottlieb Pezold who was commissioned 
to accompany him and formally receive it. Early in September, some 
excitement was caused by reports of outrages perpetrated beyond the 
Blue Mountains by Indians returning from the last general Council 
held at Easton in August, to settle terms regarding prisoners and to 
confirm the previous treaties. Justice Horsfield, by order of the 
Governor, investigated the matter and found that it was merelv a 



1756 1762. 371 

drunken revel which the white men, who had sold the Indians the 
drink and gotten them intoxicated, then exaggerated into riot, arson 
and murder ; spreading alarming sensations through the country, 
much after the same manner in which, even yet, occasional stories 
of Indian uprisings in the far West are set afloat and telegraphed 
over the country by the men who had themselves been the aggressors 
and offenders. 

In connection with reference to the above-named treaty, it may be 
noted that on August 9, the Governor of Pennsylvania — the Hon. 
James Hamilton, serving his second term — visited Bethlehem and 
passed the night at the new Sun Inn. He was therefore the first of 
the Chief Magistrates of Pennsylvania entertained at that Moravian 
hostelry, which had been open only a short time, and was destined to 
be rendered particularly historic some years later. Many other 
visitors were at the place and numerous Indians passed through, but 
without tarrying to be fed and watched for days, burdening the 
resources and worrying the officials, as formerly. 

Among the visitors was one who has left a pleasing little sketch of 
Bethlehem and its people, in the shape of notes and observations 
of the kind which are only to be found in diaries and letters of visitors ; 
giving details that would be sought for in vain in official records or 
even in the personal correspondence of Moravians themselves, but 
which touch up the far off vision with some warm color and cause 
persons who, in the dry records, are little more than names to the 
reader, to suddenly step out as Hving men and women, imparting 
an idea of themselves. The notes are not those of one come quizzing 
to convince himself of the "false doctrines" there cherished, as some 
of the militant religionists of earlier years, nor of one who wishes to 
get a sight of the "Romish practices" or of the concealed French 
powder and lead for the use of the savages, which neighbors in the 
Irish Settlement had told about. Nor are they the observations of 
the cynic, or the dyspeptic, or the individual who is smart. They 
are the impressions of an evidently healthy, sensible, well-bred young 
woman who could be interested and find enjoyment, and who was 
not one of those who describe everything as very queer that 
chances to be different from what they have always been accustomed 
to. Such a glimpse of Bethlehem in 1761 relieves the sombre impres- 
sions gotten from the narratives of the trials and hardships of the 
previous several years. It is different, too, from the purely and 
intensely religious character given the softer and finer features of the 



372 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

picture by the Brethren themselves, in the current records, in which 
they tell their own history and experiences. This visitor to Bethlehem 
whose notes, were a few years ago, put into print, ^* as those of many 
other visitors receiving varying impressions have been, was accom- 
panied from Philadelphia by two other young women and two young 
men, one of them apparently her future husband. 

On August 26, they "set out for Bethlehem and the country 
adjacent." On the way they met Anthony Benezet, who had been 
busying himself in the interests of peace at the Easton treaty and 
was returning from Bethlehem. He told them of the alarm created 
by the reports about the Indians who had come down from the moun- 
tains, but expressed the opinion that they might safely proceed. In 
the evening, on the 27th, they reached Bethlehem. At the Crown 
Inn they "began to see the manners of the people, complacent, mild 
and affable." Such persons, apparently, therefore were Andrew Horn 
and his good wife at the inn, and Daniel Kunckler, who had charge 
of the new rope ferry. The "pretty illumination" made by the 
imposing Brethren's House — "Colonial Hall" of the Young Ladies' 
Seminary — when viewed from the river, was observed. On their 
walk up to the Sun Inn they "passed by the stables which were 
struck by lightning last year."^^ At the inn kept by Peter Worbas they 
"had an elegant supper and diligent waiters." They were awakened 
the next morning "by one hundred cows, a number of them with bells, 
a venerable goat and two she-goats, driven in town by two sisters" — 
like the morning experience of many a traveler in an Alpine village. 
It is said to have looked very pretty. Nazareth was visited the next 
day — "a line farm where the widows and boys reside." There Valen- 
tine Haidt's paintings were noticed in the chapel of Nazareth Hall, 
many details of the institution are described, and it is stated that 
"the great order, decency, decorum and convenience, is hardly to be 

14 Extracts from the diary of Hannah Callender, by George Vaux — Pennsylvania .Maga- 
zine of History and Biography, Vol. XII, pp. 432-456. 

15 Not "last year" but July 20, 1761, the fine large barn, built in 1757, as men- 
tioned in the preceding pages, was struck by lightning and set on fire. Very great 
difficulty was experienced in extinguishing the flames. No horses nor harness were burned 
and the dwelling apartments remained unimpaired, but men worked all night with the bunt- 
ing hay which had to be forked out and scattered. The near-by thatch roof of the cow stable 
and sundry stacks of grain added to the peril. This fright led to the organiaalion of better 
fire-fighting arrangements and to the steps which brought the first fire-engine in America to 
Bethlehem, several years after this, just too late for use when the first disastrous conflagra- 
tion occurred in the place. 



1756 1762. 373 

expressed;" although the wooden trenchers in the dining room of 
the boys were found to be "not so clean as all the rest." At the 
Rose, where dinner was eaten, they found several Indians, and "things 
carried a solemn aspect." Perhaps Ephraim Culver and his wife were 
less genial than many another old-time Moravian host and hostess, 
and if their terrible experiences of a few years before are remembered, 
it is not surprising that, with Indians about and the reports of new 
outbreaks that had just come down from the region of their desolate 
home worrying them, things wore that kind of an aspect. At Gnaden- 
thal again there were paintings "of the birth and death of our 
Saviour." There they were kindly treated to peaches by some women. 
At Christiansbrunn, "the residence of the younger single brethren," 
they admired the water-works, milk-house and fine oxen, walked 
down steps to the spring which "being walled in a sort of room was 
very nice and had a romantic air." There they "drank of the Castalian 
fount." They also "drank a dish of tea in the Guardian's room 
opposite the single brethren's chambers, who pleased and diverted 
themselves by looking at them." The next morning, at Bethlehem, 
the cows again and "the bell calling the sisters to prayers" attracted 
attention. Nicholas Garrison, Jr., and his wife Gracie — daughter of 
WilHam Parsons — were encountered. She received them "with free- 
dom," and they met as former school-mates. Then the men of the 
company went their way while the writer and her companion were 
escorted by the polite Mrs. Garrison to the Sisters' House. There 
another school-mate, Polly Penry, whose unfortunate life was known 
to the writer, was found and the meeting was an affecting one. 
Rebecca Langly "whose ease, grace and affability" proved her genteel 
bringing up is mentioned. The accomplished but somewhat eccentric 
wife of the yet more eccentric Henry Miller, printer, was another of 
the women met with. A stroll was taken "up the single sisters' 
walk, a quarter of a mile long, adorned with two rows of black cherry 
trees to the Monocacy Creek." Along the creek the wash-house, dye- 
house, bleaching-yard, saw-mill, etc., were observed. The visitor 
says : "Sister Garrison with good humor gave us girls leave to step 
across a field to a little island belonging to the single brethren." They 
were now within the precincts of the present pleasure grounds of the 
Young Ladies' Seminary, and this was the "Wunden Eiland" referred 
to in a previous chapter. The neat summer-house on it with seats 
of turf and button-wood trees around it, is mentioned. A children's 
meeting was attended, in company with "Nicholas and Gracy Gar- 



374 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

rison;" also a lovefeast in the evening at which "small loaves of 
bread" and "a small cup of chocolate" were served. The next day 
at ten o'clock they "went to meeting" with "Sister Miller, Becky and 
Polly." The minister discoursed in English. His name, "Heyde" 
(Haidt) is mentioned, and it is stated that he was "their limner who 
executed all the paintings." 

Whatever unfavorable impressions these visitors received of one 
or another thing, and any adverse comments they may have passed 
have not been preserved in the extracts from that journal that have 
been published. They at least did not trouble themselves about the 
attitude of the Brethren towards the controverted points of school 
theology, or ask ill-mannered questions about this and that reproach 
which some grim divine or reckless sensation-monger had cast upon 
them in his book ; and they had not come to write a racy story about 
the customs of the Moravians in which the main object would be to 
make it readable and have it accepted for publication, with the 
question of the truth of the things written a quite immaterial consid- 
eration, as has been the case with so many a story in much more 
recent times. They apparently did not even undertake, from the 
knowledge gotten through a conversation of a few minutes with the 
ferryman, or the inn-keeper, or the woman who sold fancy-work at 
the Sisters' House, to explain the principles and regulations of the 
Economy for the information of the public. Undoubtedly those girls 
left with the good will of all the Bethlehem people with whom they 
had come into contact. 

That summer (1761) was a particularly fruitful one in field, 
orchard and garden, and the array of luxuriant growth, in well-kept 
condition, certainly enhanced the attractive appearance of the place, 
to which allusion is made by various people who visited it. Reference 
occurs in the records to the particularly abundant harvests of several 
years following the years of scarcity that had added to the trials of 
those dire times. It was therefore under cheerful circumstances that 
the first accessions to the population from Europe, since the arrival 
of the few with Bishop Boehler in December, 1756, were welcomed at 
Bethlehem near the end of October, 1761. 

There was now another church-transport afloat — the fourth, 
called the Hope. After the loss of the Irene, Captain Jacobsen 
made several voyages with the brig Concord, which he brought 
over from Europe after his release from captivity. His last 
arrival with this vessel, noted in the records, was on June 14, 
1760. His only passenger mentioned was Augustus Schubert bound 



1756 1762. 375 

for the Moravian settlement in North Carohna as physician. He 
started for his destination from Bethlehem early in September, 1760. 
Few details are on record about the building of the Hope. The busi- 
ness seems to have been left almost entirely in the hands of Captain 
Jacobsen ; so much so that it would appear to have been rather a 
private undertaking on his part, with perhaps others associated with 
him, than an enterprise started by the Church authorities, as in the 
case of the Irene. He served the Church, however, with this transport 
in the same manner, to such extent as was required. Henry Van 
Vleck, merchant, of New York, referred to before in these pages, a 
prominent Moravian and business agent of the Church authorities in 
that city, who had been one of the trustees of the Irene and at this 
time was acting for the others in final settlements on her account, 
made extensive use of the Hope for importing merchandise. Probably 
the enterprise was undertaken largely by his assistance and under his 
personal auspices. From several allusions it might almost be inferred 
that the vessel was purchased by Captain Jacobsen when in process of 
building at New Haven, and then finished and rigged under his 
direction. The first reference to the Hope found in the Bethlehem 
records is the statement in the diary on December 11, 1760, that, 
according to a report from the Moravian minister in New York, the 
Rev. Thomas Yarrell, Captain Jacobsen then had his ship calleld 
the Hope floated. Just before the close of the year the Captain himself 
reported to the board at Bethlehem that "his ship the Hope" was 
successfully launched on November 21, and brought safely to New 
York, December 9; and expressed his expectation that she would 
prove to be a good sailer. He stated also that he intended, shortly 
after New Year, to put off with her for Charleston, South Carolina, 
to take on a cargo for London, as none was to be had in New York. 
The vessel was registered on January 10, 1761, at New York, by 
Jacobsen and Van Vleck. She was recorded as "plantation built," 
of a hundred and twenty tons burden, carrying four cannon and a 
crew of thirteen men. On January 16, when lying in the harbor ready 
to sail, she came near being damaged by a great mass of ice causing 
her to drift to a dangerous place. On the 17th, "the day on which 
George HI. was proclaimed King in the fort and in the city," the 
Captain set sail for South Carolina, but put back on account of heavy 
wind and the ice, and sailed again on the 19th. He sailed from 
Charleston, S. C, under convoy, February 23, for England, and 
reached Portsmouth, March 28. Letters reached Bethlehem, August 



3/6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

27, stating that the Hope, three weeks after leaving London, was lying 
off Portsmouth with sixty-nine souls on board — passengers and crew 
— waiting for a convoy. She finally sailed from Spithead, August 4, 
with a fleet of four men-of-war and eighty other craft, arrived at 
Sandy Hook, October 18, 1761, reaching her dock the next day. 

Nathanael Seidel, returning after an absence of more than four 
years, was a passenger with his wife. He had during his absence been 
married to Anna Johanna Piesch, the grand-daughter of Father 
Nitschmann, who had been in America nine years before. He had 
also been consecrated a bishop on May 12, 1758. During this long 
absence he had not only participated in the successful consummation 
of a mass of legal transactions, to establish more securely the title to 
the estates of the Church in America, to which reference has already 
been made, but had engaged in several conspicuous tours and special 
labors in company with Count Zinzendorf who had now passed away 
from the joys and the toils of his earthly mission. He died at Herrn- 
hut. May 9, 1760, and the tidings of his decease reached Bethlehem, 
August 19. Seidel had also during that interval made a protracted 
and arduous official visit to the West Indies, and, after his return to 
Europe, had undergone a surgical operation for an ailment that had 
been brought on by the strain and exposure to which he had been 
so continually subjected during the years of his previous labors in 
America. He returned to Bethlehem to become the successor 
of Bishop Spangenberg as President of the Executive Board ; Span- 
genberg's counsel and assistance being desired in the General 
Governing Board of the Church in Europe with the important and 
difficult task of a new epoch before it. Seidel furthermore, after the 
death of Father Nitschmann, became the nominal Proprietor of all 
American properties of the Church — those in North Carolina excepted 
— under the arrangement explained in a previous chapter. The most 
important immediate duties before him were those connected with 
the abrogation of the General Economy which was now to take place, 
and the thorough re-organization required, from the supervision of all 
the settlements, churches and missions down to the management of 
single farms and branches of industry that had belonged to the 
Economy. He was accompanied by the Rev. Frederick William von 
Marschall and his wife, Hedwig Elizabeth, who was a daughter of 
Hans Christian von Schweinitz. Being a man of high official standing, 
distinguished ability and large experience in affairs, Marschall had 
been chosen to eventually become General Superintendent of the 
work of the Moravian Church in North Carolina. 



1756 1762. 377 

Meanwhile he was to assist in the capacity of General Warden in 
the work of re-construction at Bethlehem. Nine other ordained men 
were with the company, two of them accompanied by their wives, 
two of them widowers and the rest single men. There were, in 
addition to these, twenty-one single men in the colony and ten women, 
one of them a widow and the rest single women. ^"^ The name of the 
veteran ship steward David Wahnert appears for the last time in this 
list. He died at Herrnhut in 1765, after a life of more faithful and 
valuable service than many another about whom more has been said 
and written. 

A strong body of men was added to the force at Bethlehem and 
in the work generally by the arrival of this colony ; so that the loss of 
Bishop Spangenberg the next year, with Bishop Boehler remaining 
yet for several years during the time of transition, did not affect the 
situation at that critical stage as seriously as it might otherwise have 
done. Very busy weeks followed their arrival. Many preparations 
had yet to to be made for the introduction of the new order of things. 
There were many details with which Seidel had to familiarize himself, 
because he had been absent a long time, and the situation had to be 

16 Nearly all of the ordained men of this company subsequently rendered conspicuous and 
important service at Bethlehem. They were Abraham von Gammem who went to North 
Carolina, and Paul Muenster, a Moravian refugee, who for thirty years was identified with 
the collegiate pastorate at Bethlehem, for a while with the wardenship and for a few years 
with the General Executive Board ; these two being married men. The two widowers were 
Andrew Langaard, whose labors closed at Emmaus, where he died, and John Frederick 
Peter, who also served at Bethlehem, the first of the name who appears in the records. 
Ordained men, single, were John Arbo who, as warden of the single men and in other 
offices, filled a prominent place; Jeremiah Dencke, long one of the most prominent minis- 
ters and officials; Ferdinand Philip Jacob Dettmers, for many years the able and faithful 
warden at Bethlehem and Lititz ; Amadeus Paulinus Thrane, who from his arrival to his 
death in 1776, was connected with the pastorate and was the principal preacher at Bethlehem ; 
David Zeisberger, a cousin of the better-known missionary of that name, who served a while at 
Bethlehem, but much longer at Nazareth. Numerous trades were represented by the other 
young men of the colony. Individuals of particular interest among them were Immanuel 
Nitschmann, son of Bishop John Nitschmann, the secretary and musician mentioned in a pre- 
vious chapter; John Francis Oberlin, the store-keeper of Bethlehem in Revolutionary times; 
Matthias Tommerup, the bell-founder who cast various bells of historic interest. Among 
the young women were Anna Dorothea Nitschmann, a grand-daughter of Father Nitsch- 
mann ; Maria Dorothea Bechtel, a daughter of John Bechtel, late of Germantown, who had 
gone to Europe in 1753; Anna Seidel, a sister of Bishop Nathanael Seidel; Elizabeth 
Broksch, Maria Agatha Hammer and Elizabeth Kannhaeuser who rendered conspicuous 
official service among the single women ; Juliana Esther Wapler, long a teacher in the girls' 
school at Bethlehem, and one of the last before its re- organization in 1785. There were 18 
other single men, one widow, and two other single women. 



3/8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

carefully studied by von Marschall, particularly the finances and the 
numerous industries of the Economy which he, as General Warden, 
would have to re-organize. Besides this, the afifairs of the other 
existing congregations, the important new settlement of Lititz and 
the Indian missions claimed careful attention. At Old Nazareth, at 
Nazareth Hall, where the new Nazareth arose later, at Gnadenthal 
and Christiansbrunn, and at Friedensthal and the Rose, each a little 
center with distinct industries to foster and features of organization 
and communal Hfe to re-adjust under the new order, there had to be 
particular inspection, conference and conclusions, as well as at Beth- 
lehem. These "upper places" remained more closely combined under 
the new order, with Nazareth as headquarters. The separation that 
took place lay in those changes which made Bethlehem one center and 
the Nazareth group another in local organization and the supervision 
of the various industries. In all this, furthermore, the status, avail- 
ability for service, in one way or another, and personal welfare of 
more than eleven hundred souls, ^^ old and young, had to be 
considered, for the whole situation had to be studied from two 
points of view. On the one hand, the people were he;re for the 
benefit of the estabhshment and its objects. On the other hand, the 
establishment also existed for the people who had built it up, and 
those who were in control and responsible for the new order insti- 
tuted, owed consideration to the people. To make the changes in 
such a way that due consideration would be shown in both direc- 
tions, and satisfaction secured throughout, as far as possible, was the 
problem. 

Six elements entered into the situation, when analytically consid- 
ered, a correct apprehension of which will be conducive to clear- 
ness in understanding what had to be done and what not. The 
first was that of relations to the general government and adminis- 
tration of the Church. In this matter there was nothing that the 
dissolution of the General Economy in itself altered. What alterations 

17 According to the exact census of December 31, 1761, there were 1 140, including 62 — 
54 adults and 8 children^ — absent on journeys. Therefore there were 1078 at home. Of 
these, 669 were at Bethlehem and 409 at the several places on the Nazareth land. Of those 
at Bethlehem, 262 were males and 407 females. At the upper places there were 312 males 
and 97 females. The male population consisted at Bethlehem of 62 married men 13 wid- 
owers, 120 single men, 42 older boys and 25 younger boys down to infancy; at the Naza- 
reth places, of 61 married men, 6 widowers, 64 single men, 37 older boys and 144 younger 
boys. There were at Bethlehem 62 married women, 138 single women, 74 older girls, 133 
younger girls ; at the Nazareth places. 61 married women, 23 widows, 13 younger girls. AH 
the single women and older girls lived at Bethlehem and all the widows at Nazareth. 



i7S6 1762. 379 

took place in this general government subsequently affected in the 
same manner all the settlements and congregations. The relations 
of the general administration to Bethlehem had not been unique even 
if the organization of the latter was. Therefore nothing new had to 
be instituted in this respect. The next element was that of ownership 
in property. In this matter, what would have been the most formidable 
task was eliminated entirely by the fact that the people did not own 
any of the real, personal, or mixed estate of the Economy; and that 
the dissolution of this Economy did not involve any purchases or 
sales, transfers or conveyances of real estate. It was not a stock 
company, not a co-operative association in the sense of jointly 
purchasing and holding property. No process of liquidation in this 
respect was required. There had been no community of goods, but 
merely one of labor with a "common house-keeping" in that all 
labored for the common cause and received sustenance from the 
common store. No private property rights or interests were merged. 
This has been explained in a previous chapter. No person had or 
pretended to have any claim on the property, by reason of his mem- 
bership. Those who had made loans of money stood secured in the 
same manner as in like transactions between any other persons 
elsewhere, and this had nothing to do with the dissolution of the 
Economy and the re-adjustment of terms between the establishment 
and individual members. The third element was that which lay in the 
operation of the farms, industries and handicrafts that had been estab- 
lished. In this matter an important settlement with individuals had to 
be made in two respects. The further carrying on of these concerns to 
the best advantage of the organization and its objects, on the one 
hand, and so as to give all who had been employed an opportunity to 
further obtain a livelihood by means of them if they so desired, on the 
other hand, had to be provided for; while any possible trouble that 
might arise, after all were no longer taken care of en masse out of the 
common store as a matter of course, through demands for back wages 
or questions of indemnity, had to be guarded against. As to the first 
of these problems, the plan which was adopted divided the concerns 
into two classes. One class, some of the farms, the taverns — Crown 
and Sun — the store and several other establishments, continued to 
be carried on under the direct control of the authorities by men 
employed on terms and conditions agreed upon ; the other class, 
especially the various handicrafts, were carried on by individuals 
who purchased the stock and fixtures and leased the buildings on 



380 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

premises which remained church property. This property was not 
owned by the local organization or even by any general organization 
in the American branch of the Church, but by the entire Unity as 
such, and was managed by its central financial organization which 
was called the "General Diacony," of which the men at the head of 
this business at Bethlehem were the agents. Special '"Diaconies" 
were instituted by the single men and other choir organizations, and 
the agricultural, mechanical and other operations carried on in con- 
nection with the several choir-houses, were managed by their several 
diaconies which then dealt, as if they were individual lessees, with 
the General Diacony. The other point of settlement with individuals, 
touching questions of back wages or indemnity, was covered by a 
release signed by every male adult in which all such supposable 
claims were renounced, in consistency with the terms and conditions 
all had signed as members of the Economy.^' 

While great results had been accomplished in opening up and 
improving the lands, erecting buildings and establishing industries 
through the combined labor of the people under the system nOw 
terminated, so that what existed at Bethlehem and the Nazareth 
places was the product of their toil, it would be a misapprehension 
of the facts to take the view that they were simply left with nothing 
for all the time and strength they had devoted to the cause — left to 
start in for themselves empty-handed, many of them far past middle 
life with strength on the decline, to look back upon the work of years 
as pure benevolence on their part. In this light the case presented 
itself to some who viewed it from the outside, and there were people 
in the neighborhood who so represented it to some of the farmers, 
mechanics and laborers at Bethlehem and Nazareth, trying to stir 

»7 There was reason enough to expect that an effort would be made by persons inimical to 
the Brethren to induce some to attempt to legally present such claims, especially some who 
had left before this in a disaffected mood or had been given the consilium abeundi. One 
such test case occurred. In March, 1763, a certain shoemaker, Jacob Musch, who left in 
disrepute in 1759 and settled at Easton, took legal steps to collect an alleged claim for work 
to the amount of jf525. 13. 9. Bishop Boehler and Warden Schropp had papers served on 
them. Von Marschall laid the case before Benjamin Chew and secured a legal opinion, 
which sustained the position of the Church authorities. The case was watched with much 
interest and caused the Brethren no little anxiety, because if it turned against them, it would 
become the precedent for similar attempts by others like Musch, and possibly even by some 
"of the baser sort" who had not left Bethlehem. It went before the Supreme Court, and 
in October, 1766, that body decided the case in favor of the Brethren. The l.iw being thus 
shown to be on their side no further like attempt was made. 



i7S6 1762. 381 

up discontent, telling them that by rights all these things belonged 
to them and even intimating that certain ones had profited richly 
out of the products of their toil. Nothing could be more natural 
than that this latter supposition should find a place in some kinds 
of minds and be recklessly gossiped about the country by those 
whose studied practice it was to say what they could against the 
Moravians. 

The men and women who labored for the Economy had been fed 
and clothed and cared for, during those years, with no responsibility 
resting upon them but to behave themselves and faithfully do their 
work. Shelter and food and clothing for themselves and their child- 
ren were not dependent upon their own ability to manage. Those 
of them who, if left to themselves, would have been incompetent, 
shiftless and improvident, were not put to the test of providing for 
themselves. When failure of crops and times of scarcity came, and 
thousands of bushels of grain had to be bought to feed them, it was 
paid for by mortgaging property which had cost them nothing, and 
not a man of them ever had to stand for a single farthing of such 
debts. When the dissolution of the Economy came, a home and 
employment were provided for every one who wished to avail him- 
self of it, and those who preferred to leave were quite at liberty to 
do so, just as they had always been. Very few did so, for 
it was generally believed that those in control would deal in 
good faith with them, and that it was to their advantage to 
remain at their posts. A fundamental principle of the system now 
instituted was to enable every person who remained in connection 
to gain a livelihood. Eventually, too, all of the people who had 
borne the burden and heat of the day under the Economy were 
regarded as of right pensioners of the Church. If they were without 
resources when they became old and infirm, home and keeping were 
provided for them, not as a matter of benevolence, as towards 
paupers with no claim, but as a recognized obligation. Their posi- 
tion became rather an honorable one than one that hurt their self- 
respect. They had as little reason to be ashamed of it as the man 
who has lost an arm or a leg or had his health ruined in the service 
of his country in war, has reason to be ashamed of the pension he 
receives from the Government. A pathetic interest attaches to the 
references found in subsequent years to the care of the old Economy 
people — "Alte Oeconomisten" — in the financial records of the Church. 

Another element of the situation to be dealt with in these changes 
was the practical difficulty of finding separate dwellings for families 



382 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

when the camp-like arrangements, which had yet continued to some 
extent, were abolished. This was, however, not as formidable as 
might at first thought be supposed. A considerable number of such 
private dwelling apartments had been provided in various buildings, 
after the removal of the boys' school to Nazareth Hall. Various 
other places were fitted up as a makeshift until, after some years, 
the increased number of regular dwelling-houses relieved this diffi- 
culty. The number of girls from other places connected with the 
boarding-school was before long greatly reduced, and when, in the 
course of further shiftings, this institution was again fully accom- 
modated in the first seminary — the bell-turret house on Church 
Street — the large stone house on Main Street, into which it was 
moved when the boys were transferred to Nazareth, became entirely 
a building for private dwellings, and then got the third of its succes- 
sive names— the "Family House." 

When later its population came to consist for some years mainly 
of such superannuated Economy people pensioned by the Church, the 
fourth name came into vogue — the "Economy House." A substi- 
tute for this, brought into use at a later time by some in flippant dis- 
regard of what they, as comfortable denizens of Bethlehem, owed 
those old Oeconomisten, was "the poor-house" — a term applied, in like 
manner, to the Whitefield house at Nazareth, which for a consider- 
able period was devoted to the same use. This objectionable term, 
as applied to both structures, was handed down and used long after 
the last Economist had been gathered to his fathers, and many a 
one who kept the name alive, together with the staple stock of 
ludicrous stories, probably many of them were more humorous than 
true, about the eccentricities of some of the old people, was enjoy- 
ing in ease and opulence, the fruit of their toil from which he with 
little toil had waxed fat. 

Returning from this digression, it may be observed also that, so 
far as Bethlehem was concerned, it was at the time a question of 
providing separate dwelling-rooms for only about fifty married 
couples who had been yet living in the former fashion — the men and 
the women respectively occupying separate large apartments in com- 
mon, while eating together at one table. The single men and the 
single women were organized in their respective large houses and 
were thus cared for. This remained as it was, with merely a more 
independent establishment of their several institutions financiall}- and 
some reconstruction of their afeneral management. 



1756 1762. 383 

Yet another element of the problem to be solved was the par- 
ticular one of caring for and educating the children. Proper school 
facilities had to be maintained, under any circumstances, for the resi- 
dent population. To some extent, a house had yet to be provided 
for children too young to join the households of older boys and girls, 
tinder separate care and supervision, for the dwelling arrangements 
of many of the families were so scant in room that the children had 
to be yet cared for in apartments together, as before. The institution 
for the very youngest children, know^n as the nurser)', gradually came 
to an end, for it was finally limited to the case of people who had 
to be absent in missionary service. But the children of missionaries, 
from the time that they could be put in the care of others than their 
parents until the close of their school years and apprenticeship, 
were regarded as a special charge to be provided for as one of the 
foremost obligations. The very generous terms on which, before 
this, children of members in the country congregations had been 
admitted to the institutions, both for girls and for boys, could no 
longer be continued ; and due notice was given at all such places, of 
the terms and conditions under which children would further be 
admitted. It was plainly stated that, in the absence of any special 
source of revenue for the schools — School-Diacony — to provide for 
which some time would be required, those in control could no longer 
be as generous as before. The withdrawal of most of the children 
from such country places, whose parents were glad to have them 
educated and trained at Bethlehem so long as it cost them little or 
nothing, explains the gradual diminution of the numbers, both in 
the boarding-school at Bethlehem and in Nazareth Hall, in the 
course of the following years. While the attendance of pupils sent 
from other places, not only by Moravians, but also by others under 
special arrangement, never ceased entirely, yet, for some years prior 
to the re-organization of those institutions in 1785, their boarding- 
pupils were chiefly children of ministers and missionaries. It must 
be borne in mind that in 1762, when with the dissolution of the 
Economy the practically gratuitous education of numerous boys and 
girls from outside places, as a branch of home missionary activity 
and with a view to training useful recruits for the ranks of mission- 
aries and teachers, was modified for financial reasons, the Moravian 
Church was carrying the enormous load of debt referred to in a 
previous chapter. Therefore, even if it was not hoped to make the 



384 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

schools a source of revenue, it was of importance that they should 
not be a serious drain on the heavily taxed resources/^ 

Finally, the sixth element of the case to be considered was the 
revision of rules and regulations, covering declaration of principle 
and aim as a whole ; general statutes in reference to the conduct of 
trades and industries ; privileges and obligations of house-holders ; 
relation of all classes to the various authorities and officials ; the life 
and walk and conversation of individuals. In all of these respects 
definite articles suitable to the changed situation had to be framed, 
agreed to by all and signed, as a covenant or brotherly agreement, 
superseding that of 1754. In this task the statutes in force at Herrn- 
hut and those which had been drawn up and approved by Zinzendorf 
for the new church settlement, Lititz, which was founded at once 
after the Herrnhut model, into conformity to which the hitherto 
unique organization of Bethlehem was now to be brought, were 
utilized as a guide. It is of interest, therefore, to note that the 
earliest statutes of Lititz, as a regular church settlement on the 
European plan — Ortsgemeinc — are older than those of Bethlehem. 

All the preliminary arrangements had been made with such care 
that the transition from the old to the new system was effected expe- 
ditiously and smoothly. The achievement is surprising and can be 
rightly appreciated only by one who has made a thorough study of 
the situation and of the varied details involved. Public announce- 
ment of the intended changes was made on January 17, 1762, by 
Bishop Spangenberg. January 31, at a Genmntag^^ service, when 
many from other places were present, the new school-regulations 
were published. At a general meeting of communicant members on 
February 23, the details of the change, as then settled, were explained, 
so far as they concerned all of the people. 

Meanwhile, the last Synod before Spangenberg left for Europe 
intervened. It was held at Lancaster, May 12-16. There the 
announcements relating to the general organization and direction of 

18 The public announcement made was that, from the beginning of 1762, the charge 
would be ;^io Pa., annually for each child, "to be paid quarterly in advance to Christian F. 
Oerter, book-keeper." For this sum board and lodging, light and fuel and constant attend- 
ance were included with tuition. The parents or guardians had to furnish clothing, and the 
expense of nurse and medicine in sickness was extra. Music, to a certain extent, and in- 
struction in some manual employment were also included without extra charge because in 
these lines the pupils could, after they became somewhat proficient, render some service in 
return for their instruction. 

19 On Gemeintag see note 4 of Chapter IV. 



1756 1762 



3^5 



affairs were made, and all those points settled in which the relations 
between Bethlehem and the other settlements and congregations had 
to be re-adjusted. 

On June i, the books of the General Diaconate were opened, and 
the new basis of business relations, with a new system of accounts 
between the whole and all of the parts, was estabhshed. Inside of 
three weeks every man who had belonged to the Economy, had 
signed the release which was equivalent to a final settlement and 
receipt in full of all claims and accounts. On June 20, the new 
statutes, which had been approved by all voters of the place, 
were read at a public meeting, in their final shape, and the takmg of 
signatures to these commenced. The General Economy was at an 
end and a new epoch in the history of Bethlehem opened. Bishop 
Spangenberg's work in America was now done. On June 22, he 
and his wife took final leave of Bethlehem and went to Philadelphia, 
whence on July i, they sailed for Europe. 




COMMUNION SERVICE USED BY THE CHOIR OF SINGLE SISTERS, 1762. 



26 



CHAPTER XL 



The Decade to the Second Reorganization. 
1762 — I 77 I. 

At the beginning of the new period which opened when the General 
Economy was aboHshed in 1762, some others besides Spangenberg, 
who liad long been prominently connected with affairs at Bethlehem, 
and with various activities elsewhere under the direction of its author- 
ities, disappeared from the scene, to be mentioned no more. On 
April I, the Rev. Gottlieb Pezold, one of the most devoted and 
efficient men, long the superintendent of the organization of the 
single men, the chief promoter of the work in the Maguntsche 
neighborhood — Salisbury Township — which resulted in the settlement 
and church of Emmaus, and one of the most valuable members 
of the central board at Bethlehem, died unexpectedly at Lititz. He 
had gone there on ofificial business, was taken sick in consequence 
of exposure on the way, and there ended his days greatly mourned 
by all. On April 20, the Rev. John Michael Graff left with his wife 
and some other persons for Wachovia, North CaroHna, where the 
rest of his life was spent; he being the first bishop (1773) of the 
Moravian Church, or any other church, in that part of the country. 

On May 18, the veteran missionary Martin Mack left Bethlehem — 
he sailed from New York, June 27 — for St. Thomas, to become the 
superintendent of the oldest mission field of the Moravian Church 
in the Danish West Indies. With Bishop Spangenberg sailed for 
Europe on July i, the Rev. Andrew Anthony Lawatsch, who had 
been one of the most important men connected with the direction 
of affairs at Bethlehem. He was a widower. His wife Anna A'laria 
Demuth, who had suffered tribulation for the gospel in Bohemia 
and, with others of her family, fled to Herrnhut — a peculiarly gifted 
and noble woman, and one of the most notable engaged in official 
work at Bethlehem — had died January 20, 1760. They were accom- 
panied also by the Rev. Jacob Rodgers, son-in-law of William Parsons 
"the father of Easton," at whose funeral, on December 19, 1757, 
he had, at the dying request of the deceased, conducted the last 

386 



1762 I77I- 387 

rites. Rodgers was also now a widower and was returning to 
England after twenty years of varied activity in America. David 
Wahnert and his wife also returned with them to Europe, to cross 
the ocean with Moravian colonies no more. On the other hand, 
some new names, besides those of the recently arrived colony, come 
into prominence. 

One, particularly, may be mentioned here, because of the distin- 
guished missionary career that had its beginning, early in 1762, 
with the first conspicuous reference to a man later so well known. 
In the summer of 1761, the restless, roving and adventurous mission- 
ary Post, by agreement with some western Delawares, had built a 
cabin on the Tuscarawas River in Ohio, not far from the site of 
the present town of Bolivar, where he proposed to found a nelw 
mission. He returned to Bethlehem in February, 1762, to seek a 
companion and fellov^f-laborer from among the young men. John 
Heckewelder, although not yet of age, was the person he selected. 
Heckewelder desired to enter the missionary service but hesitated 
about this proposition. Bishop Spangenberg was yet in Bethlehem. 
An interview was had on the matter, encouragement was given hirn 
to try it. This encouragement by Spangenberg was supported by 
that of Zeisberger, who just then was sojourning at Bethlehem. The 
hesitating young man came to a decision and said "here am I, send 
me." Spangenberg announced this to the people at a public meeting 
on February 23. Preparations for the journey were soon made, for 
in those days it did not take such men long to get ready. Hecke- 
welder started with a traveling companion afoot through the deep 
snow on March 9, for Lititz, where he was to meet Post, who mean- 
while had gone to Philadelphia. He reached Lititz on March 12, 
the da)' on which he became twenty years old. There he was again 
warmly encouraged by his beloved friend and spiritual advisor Pezold, 
who gave him his dying blessing at the beginning of his new under- 
taking, and from Lititz he and his veteran companion set out together 
for the West. Thus began the missionary life of John Heckewelder, 
and, although nothing came of that first attempt, on account of the 
unsettled state of things in the Indian country — Heckewelder was 
back in Bethlehem, the end of November^that was the beginning of 
work by the Moravian Church in the historic Tuscarawas Valley 
of Ohio, in which later so much of Heckewelder's valuable service 
to the Church, the State and the General Government was rendered. 

In the summer of 1762, the institutions of Bethlehem, its adjunct 



388 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Indian village of Nain, its missionary and other enterprises generally 
were again the objects of inspection and inquiry on the part of a 
number of prominent men. Another of the numerous almost farcical 
treaties with the Indians, held at Easton in June, 1762, brought 
many persons to the neighborhood. Among those who visited Beth- 
lehem were Governor Hamilton, Sir John Sinclair, and the famous 
Sir WilHam Johnston. The Governor dined at the Sun Inn on 
June 29. The peculiar connection of Bethlehem with the. Indians 
made the place particvilarly interesting to such men at that time. 
The customary tour of the various official buildings and industrial 
establishments was made by some of them. The state of things 
probably did not reveal the important reconstructions and changing 
of hands that were then in progress, for no disturbance of the regular 
routine took place. 

An imaginary tour with visitors might be taken among the 
industries of Bethlehem at that interesting beginning of a new 
period, and something noted of the concerns then being operated. In 
the Brethren's House, for the enlargement of which preparations 
were being made — the corner-stone of the eastern extension was laid 
on August 31 — they found, besides the large bakery yet being oper- 
ated there, a number of handicrafts carried on that could be accom- 
modated in one and another of its rooms. Besides tailors, shoe- 
makers, saddlers and other such craftsmen, they came upon a corps 
of men in one room busily writing. From three to six men were 
continually occupied at this work. Looking out of the windows 
at the north-west corner, clusters and rows of buildings, log and 
stone, of various sizes appeared, with the grist-mill and the Indian 
House just across the creek from it, in the background to the left ; 
the group of structures in the grain and stock-yards, about the 
original log cabin of Bethlehem, in which the overseer of that depart- 
ment lived, in the central background, while to the right and due 
north, along the Hne of the present Main Street, they saw, beyond 
the log house with the water-tower at the end of it where the church 
now stands, the dwelling and laboratory of Dr. Otto ; above that the 
large stone house of various uses, then occupied mostly as a dwelling, 
with the weavers busy in the basement ; farther up, and in a line 
with it, the large barn and horse stable containing the dwelling of 
the men in charge, and beyond that on the same line, the Sun Inn. 

The nearest of these buildings, almost under the shadow of the 
Brethren's House at the north-west corner, on the slope of the hill, 



1762 I77I- 389 

where the present Main Street makes the turn, was the log house 
built in 1742 for the carpenters and joiners, connected with the first 
little log cooper's shop. In the new one farther north at this time 
John Heckewelder was learning to make cedar tubs. The first was 
now used by the turners under the direction of "Father" Bechtel, for 
the joiners had moved to other quarters. There spinning-wheels 
were made in considerable numbers, there being a constant demand 
for them throughout the surrounding country, and many being 
needed for the Sisters' House and for the use of the girls in the 
school in those days of much spinning. Possibly, if a brand or trade- 
mark had been put upon these wares, more than one ancient spinning- 
wheel preserved as a relic would be found to have been made in 
that little log shop on the premises now known as the Abbott 
property. There also, on the slope of the hill, just north of that, 
stood the log house which was fitted up in the first years of the settle- 
ment as the primitive hostelry, mentioned in an earlier chapter, 
before the Crown Inn was built. Near it, on the hill side, Ludwig 
Huebener built his first oven and in a corner of that house, for a 
while, set up his first rude wheel to turn out pottery for the use of 
the settlement. A more pretentious building of stone near-by, 
thirty-two by thirty-five feet, built in 1749, and constituting the first 
structure of the more permanent row from the Brethren's House 
corner towards the first house of Bethlehem — the line from the bend 
in Main Street to what is now called Rubel's Alley — was at this 
time the pottery, where a thriving business was carried on, and when 
the Economy was abolished, was taken over by Huebener. Large 
demands for the useful earthen-ware there produced, came from 
the Durham furnace where the Brethren bought much iron, and from 
farmers about the country, and some orders, even from Philadelphia, 
were filled, while, as can be readily understood, much had to be 
made for the use of the spring-houses and larders of Bethlehem and 
the Nazareth places. Some dwellings were fitted up in the second 
story of the pottery building, to which an addition was built in 1756, 
and at the time of the dissolution of the Economy, the thirteen 
widowers living in Bethlehem had their common room and dormitory 
there. This was the property where now a modern structure is to 
replace the old landmark at the corner, on the south side of the 
road leading from Main Street down to the mill. 

Next to it, on the opposite corner, stood the second stone house 
of the row — it is yet there — built in 1750. An extension had been 



39° A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

built to the east in 1761 and a second story was added to tlie whole 
in 1763. There work in iron was done. The blacksmiths were 
occupying it, their first shop, built in 1743, having stood just back 
of it on the hill-side towards the spring. There the locksmith also 
had his stand, and there, for a while, the first wrought-iron nails were 
made at Bethlehem. In 1754, however, the nail-smith took possession 
of the log house first used by the potter, already mentioned. Another 
log building standing on the slope in the rear of the stone smithy, 
adjoining the east end of its rude predecessor — both of these log 
houses stood in a line with the first house of Bethlehem — was that 
used by the wheel-wrights and wagon-makers. There the stock of 
freight-wagons, carts, plows, harrows and lighter farming utensils 
was supplied and kept in repair. In the above mentioned first smith- 
shop the primitive battery was in operation. What shape the blocks 
had which turned off the "wool hats" of that time is a question not 
to be settled now, but it may be assumed that it did not vary often 
in punctilious conformity to changing styles of the season. The 
straw hats worn in summer were plaited by women and girls in the 
Sisters' House. This branch of female industry, which in subsequent 
years continued to be of some importance, had been introduced in 
1755, under instruction given by Jacob Boerstler's wife, of Oley. 
From those log houses behind the stone smithy it was but a short 
descent to the grist-mill, with its double run of stones, at some 
seasons rumbling day and night under the red tile roof and on the 
red tile floor that rested upon the solid masonry, rebuilt in 1751, 
of stone quarried from the brow of the hill, later named Nisky by 
Captain Garrison, across the Monocacy from the saw-mill. The 
whirling of these stones did not jar the massive walls erected in the 
manner in which Henry Antes had his workmen build mills, nor crack 
the smooth plastering of the interior spread upon laths from the 
little saw-mill at Christiansbrunn. No doubt those distinguished 
visitors stepped into the mill and had a friendly word with Abraham 
Andreas, the miller, who had taken charge of it under the new 
arrangement. Connected with the grist-mill, to the west, was the full- 
ing-mill, rebuilt of stone in 1759, and started up on October 19, of 
that year, with its four beaters working excellently, as the record 
states, and "capable of running through three hundred yards of stuff 
at once." This, with the adjoining room for the clothiers and at the 
west end the dye-house, presented a front of a hundred and eight 
feet from the eastern end of the grist-mill towards the Monocacy. It 
is not unlikely that there they crossed the creek and looked into the 



1762 I77I- 



391 




PLAN OF BETHLEHEM, I758. 



392 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Indian House, an establishment that would probably interest Sir 
WiUiam Johnston. Moving southward from the mill, on the road 
by which the laden wagons came and went between that point and 
the ferry, they were in the heart of the cluster of structures which 
they had surveyed from the windows of the Brethren's House. Just 
south of the grist-mill, on the east side of the tail race, in the small 
frame building of 1743, to which several others were added, tanning, 
tawing and currying had been undertaken on a small scale, and soon 
became an important industry. A large stone building commenced 
on the other side of the race in May, 1761, had been completed and 
the new tannery was being rapidly gotten into order for work on a 
more extended scale. It became, and for many years continued to 
be, the most lucrative business at Bethlehem. In the rear of the 
tannery stood the slaughter-house, near the bank of the creek, pre- 
empting a locality to be the place for the shedding of much innocent 
blood and the dressing of much meat, even down to the present 
day, when man is no less carnivorous than a century and a half ago. 
A little farther down was at that time the oil-mill, where the seed 
from the many acres of flax that furnished the linen of the place 
was converted into a profitable article of export to the cities, with 
the little mill for grinding tan-bark adjacent. But at this point, a 
piece of important mechanism which interested all visitors more 
than anything else, attracted attention. The enlarged and improved 
water-works of Bethlehem were just being gotten into final working 
order, for on July 6, 1762, the first flow began. The surprise and 
admiration elicited by this enterprising and ingenious achievement — 
for the like of it was not then to be found anywhere in the colonies — 
perhaps led to an inspection of the remarkable spring from which 
the water was pumped, and around which all of these establishments 
had arisen. There, about two hundred and forty feet from the old 
water-works, was the milk house, cool and shady, with the over- 
flow stream from the spring-house running through it, after passing 
through another apartment, in which meat and butter were kept, 
and at the end the heavy log structure, that enclosed and covered the 
place of gushing water, was entered — the whole primitive, but neat 
and scrupulously clean. In those days there was no reason yet 
for the dread thought of contamination to be associated with that 
remarkable water supply in the mind of resident or visitor.^ 

I After this cursory survey of the principal establishments of the place — there were sundry 
other minor ones — as they existed at the dissolution of the Economy, there will be less ref- 
erence in these pages than hitherto to such matters in detail. In general, the plan of merely 



1762 1 77 1- 393 

For a year after the new era opened, the course of Hfe at Bethlehem 
ran smoothly and quietly, but in midsummer of 1763, signs of 
approaching trouble again began to appear. Apprehending new 
Indian raids upon the frontiers, nursing the old dislike for Beth- 
lehem and particularly for Moravian missionaries and a sullen resent- 
ment that became fanatical in its unreasoning intensity towards the 
Christian Indians living under Government protection at Nain, some 
people in the Irish Settlement again began to threaten both Nain 
and Wechquetank with summary destruction, and even to intimate 
that Bethlehem would suffer, so soon as the first occasion occurred 
for again taking up arms on account of the Indians. Pontiac's savage 
dream of effectually checking the further advance of the white man, 
taking shape in the deep-laid plan of attacks upon frontier settlements 
from the easternmost Indian borders to far-off Fort Detroit, had 
begun, already in May, to bear its fruit. Startling evidences of this 
bloody conspiracy began to send a new thrill of terror through one 
region after another, widely separated. Reason enough was there 
for alarm as far down as the Forks of the Delaware. But even under 
circumstances that created a panic of fear and stirred up the utmost 
exasperation, the mournful lesson of Gnadenhuetten and the shelter, 
food and protection these people had shared at Bethlehem when they 
fled like frightened sheep before the dogs to seek refuge with the 
Moravians, should not have been forgotten so soon. It might also 
have been expected, at least of those who professed to be enlight- 
ened and even Christian men, that they would have learned to under- 
stand the difference between this little residue of really Christian 
Indians whom the Moravians had rescued from the ruins of the 
missions, and merely "friendly" Indians, so-called, who were never- 
theless yet heathen and savages in ideas and practices, and whom 
men could not in such times be blamed for not trusting. It might 
also have been expected that by this time, all the people of the 

sketching leading features and incidents will be followed after this point, more than in the 
preceding chapters. The period to the end of the General Economy was the more heroic 
period of Bethlehem, in which the most, both externally and internally, that is of permanent 
historic interest in connection with the town, originated. With two exceptions, to be treated 
of yet at the proper place, all the important historic buildings of Bethlehem dating from the 
■eighteenth century, were erected prior to 1762. That being, furthermore, the period to 
which most of the things pertain which are regarded as " peculiarities" of Moravian princi- 
"ples, operations, customs and experiences, so much written about from differing standpoints, 
and with varying degrees of understanding and correctness, there is more to be explained, 
from the beginning of Moravian work in Pennsylvania up to 1762 than after that. 



394 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

neighborhood would have learned to understand that the traveling- 
of Indians from Wyoming and beyond to Wechquetank and Nain and 
back again, was not necessarily to be taken as evidence, that any 
of the Christian Indians at these places were in league with the 
savages. It had become clear enough in the former Indian war that 
emissaries from the hostiles tried, of course, in every way to entice 
the converts to join them ; that they also shrewdly lurked about and 
went to and fro to produce the impression upon observers that 
these were their allies ; and that, when they failed to move them they 
plotted to wreak vengeance upon them by murdering them, the 
same as white settlers. It was the common practice for men who, 
either in the vicinity of the Christian Indian villages or farther off 
in the Indian country, observed the movements of such Indians 
coming and going, to apply the term "Moravian Indians" quite indis- 
criminately, not only to those who dwelt at these stations and the 
few faithful ones who lived in the Indian country, but also to the 
apostates who had once been connected with the missions but were 
now with the hostiles in their plots, and even to many who had merely 
been known to have stood in some association with the converts 
formerly or were visitors at their villages, but who never had any 
connection with the missions. These two unfortunate mistakes of 
misinterpreting the going to and fro, and of accepting reports about 
the movements of "Moravian Indians" with the term thus applied 
to many who had no connection with the missions and over whom 
the missionaries had no influence whatever, gave rise to all the 
statements that were reproduced in current reports, official corre- 
spondence and public documents of the time, casting serious 
reflections upon that little band of loyal and inoffensive converts, and 
even upon the devoted missionaries, so groundless and unjust.- 

The threats thus made on every side led the Indians at Nain and 
Wechquetank, the latter part of July, 1763, to address Governor 
Hamilton with an appeal for protection. This was promised them, 
and, by arrangement between the Government and Justice Horsfield. 

2 In view of the wild excitement and fierce resentment against all Indians whatsoever 
which the terrible experiences of so many along the borders had aroused, and the utter ina- 
bility of such men as many of those Scotch-Irish frontiersmen were, by nature and training, 
to understand or sympathize with missionary efforts, it is easier, after the lapse of many years, 
to condone their blind injustice in this matter, and even the retaliatory acts of barbarity, 
quite equal to that of the savages, which some finally perpetrated, than it is to read with 
patience the pages of some modem historians who continue to reproduce those unmerited 
imputations, as if they were established facts. 



1762 I77I- 395 

certain careful regulations were adopted, drawn up by Horsfield and 
officially communicated to the settlers in the surrounding country, 
to which strict compliance was promised and observed by the 
converts, respecting their movements, dress, manner of meeting and 
greeting white men, method of carrying and handling their guns, and 
other details, so that they might easily be distinguished by people 
from savages or even from strange Indians in civilized dress. This 
was done at the Governor's suggestion. 

It had little effect, however, among the kind of men who were 
making threats, for they had no desire to avoid disturbing the 
Indians, but were rather planning to make an end of them, or, at 
least, to force their removal. Zeisberger, who had again been trying 
to accomplish some good in Wyoming, and had on June 26, baptized 
the noted Monsey chief Papunhank, a genuine convert, but had been 
officially recalled to Bethlehem towards the middle of July when the 
danger around him became serious, went up to Wechquetank some 
weeks later to see how Grube and his Indians fared. He returned on 
August 15, and reported that several hostile Indians who had been 
prowHng about, evidently bent on mischief, had been called to 
account for their actions by an old Indian at the mission, named 
Petrus, and sternly admonished by him to forsake their evil ways, to 
return to their homes and to commit no depredations on the way, 
lest they help to bring calamity upon themselves and their country ; 
and that the strangers had thereupon gone their way crest-fallen. In 
Wyoming, which region the Indians still claimed as their own, the 
melancholy death of Teedyuscung, on the 19th of April, charged by 
his partisans among the savages to the instigation of the Six Nations, 
the assuming lords of the Delawares and Shawanese, led those who 
were disposed to co-operate with Pontiac's conspiracy, to urge disre- 
gard of the message that was sent them with a belt by those lords, 
in July, commanding them to remain quiet and not take part in the 
war. The receipt of this message was reported by peaceable Indians 
as a re-assurance to the converts at Nain on July 29, and again at 
Bethlehem by some others on August 10. They stated that the Six 
Nations would not permit attacks to be made "this side of the Susque- 
hanna." Even if this policy on the part of those chiefs was seriously 
meant, the turbulent and discordant elements in Wyoming could not 
thus be restrained. There again the reckless fatuity of white men 
helped to precipitate what it was hoped might be averted. In the night 
of August 20, three peaceable and unoffending Christian Indians, 



396 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

a man and two women, with a little child, on their way from Wechque- 
tank to their place of abode on the upper Susquehanna, were sleeping 
at a place on the Pocopoco Creek where Captain Jacob Wetterhold 
and his company of militia were lodging. These Indians had put 
themselves under the protection of the troops and, taking their 
promise of security in good faith, lain down to sleep. The militia fell 
upon them in their defenceless situation and, in cold blood, put them 
all to death. Such an occurrence showed clearly how the disposition 
of some white men was not a whit better than that of the savages, 
while they could surpass the latter in the blundering folly of some of 
their deeds. They were recklessly throwing the fire that all were 
dreading into the straw. The treachery of the act gave the same 
excuse to the Indians for concluding that no white man could be 
trusted because some could not, that many white men found for class- 
ing all Indians together and declaring that none of them could be 
trusted. The cowardly nature of the act was quite characteristic of 
the kind of men who went blustering about the neighborhood, threat- 
ening to "lay Bethlehem in ashes" on account of Indian outrages ; 
then when the savages took them by surprise, ran panic-stricken to 
that same Bethlehem to seek shelter and eat the bread of the maligned 
Moravians, and after the scare was over, went out and denounced 
them anew with the same braggart threats. A careful study of all the 
evidence leaves no doubt that this deed was intended to goad the In- 
dians at Nain and Wechquetank to some overt act or threat that 
would afford a pretext for attacking them, and they could be attacked 
with more convenience and less peril than the fierce, painted warriors 
farther off who did not pretend to be followers of Jesus. The brothers 
of the unfortunate Indian who was killed by the militia lived at Wech- 
quetank. Thither these militia, joined by others, then went, with a 
view to destroying the place, presuming that some alleged move of 
retaliation could easily be put forward as a reason. Twice and thrice 
such demonstrations were made, but without even inducing the con- 
verts to make any show of special preparation to as much as defend 
themselves. The patient heroism of the missionary Grube and his 
noble wife, sitting there through these ordeals, while on the other 
hand treacherous spies of the savages lurked about to the peril of the 
place, most of the time alone, single-handed and unarmed, encour- 
aging the little band to remain quiet and trust in God, was sublime. 
At any moment, the Indians might, upon a word from him, have 
gathered up their effects at night and fled to the forest and made 
their escape, and he could have slipped ofif with his wife and found 



1762 1/71. 397 

his way to a place of safety. Far more reason and right had he to 
flee to Bethlehem than many of his maligners from the settlements 
who did so. When explanations and declarations of the missionaries, 
appeals to the Government protection that had been assured and 
expostulations by Horsfield as Magistrate, availed nothing, threats 
to lodge formal complaint against Wetterhold before the Governor 
for the unprovoked, unsoldierlike and cowardly act of August 20, for 
lawless disturbance and contempt of orders promulgated under the 
Government seal, had the effect of restraining these rangers from 
further menacing Wechquetank just then. Ere long, shocking retri- 
bution came upon some of them and their Captain by the hands of 
savage avengers, for the occurrence of August 20, soon became 
known in the Indian country, and what they brought upon them- 
selves as the result of their folly, caused the spark they had kindled 
to burst into a flame, for others had to suffer with them and an 
extensive region was again terrorized. On October 7, 1763, Captain 
Wetterhold and some of his men were in night-quarters about nine 
miles from Bethlehem at John Stanton's tavern, which stood a little 
more than a mile from the site of the present village of Howertown 
in East Allen Township. Some savages had determined to avenge 
the killing of those Indians, against whom they had no grudge 
because they did not live at the mission but in the Indian country, 
and to base upon this their first new incursion in the Lehigh Valle}'. 
They made an attack upon the tavern at night, mortally wounded 
the Captain, killed several of his men and also Stenton and a servant. 
This deplorable affair was reported at Bethlehem early the next 
morning, as well as other acts of violence at several places. The 
Bethlehem diary says the road from the Irish Settlement was 
thronged with refugees to Bethlehem. "They were received with 
willing hearts and, as far as possible, housed and cared for. At noon 
several brethren were sent to bring in the wounded, who were how- 
ever, with the bodies of the dead, already on the way. They arrived 
in the afternoon. The dead soldiers were buried on the Burnside 
farm." The unfortunate Captain was carried to the Crown Inn 
south of the Lehigh, where a number of terror-stricken people had 
gathered. He died there the next day, October 9, and was buried 
in the little graveyard on the hill nearby.'' October 10, word came 

3 In The Crown /«», appendix 2, page 131, the Rev. W. C. Reichel gives the burial of 
Captain Wetterhold as the last in that little cemetery. Five more, at least, took place — cases 
specially pathetic and strikingly similar. It is recorded that on October 19, 1763, a young 



398 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

from Gi'ube at Wechquetank that his Indians had received notice, 
the previous day, that the blood-shed would be avenged on them. 
It was now decided that he and his wife with their Indians should 
be transferred to Nazareth, and David Zeisberger, Sr.,* was sent up 
with several others to deliver this message and aid them in their 
exodus. 

They left at once and all reached Nazareth safely on the 12th. 
When they took their departure the "well-known" triumphant shout 
of the savages and gun shots were heard in the vicinity. Later infor- 
mation revealed that at that time Indians, as well as white foes, were 
plotting the destruction of the place. Meanwhile, on the 17th, Justice 
Horsiield had sent a special report of these developments to the 
Governor. On that day a panic spread in the Saucon Valley and 
many people rushed together at the Croiwn Inn. On that and the 
following days, several companies of militia rode through Bethlehem 
bound for the Irish Settlement. Tidings of the atrocious massacre 
of New England settlers in the Wyoming Valley, October 15, 1763, 
reached Bethlehem three days later. The diary states : "We at once 
informed our neighbors in the Irish Settlement of this, so that they 
might be on their guard." Several families, among them "Mr. 
Lawrence^ of Fort Allen" arrived as refugees in the afternoon. 



woman shot in the body in the recent Indian attack, and brought to Bethlehem, died and 
was buried there, leaving an infant, her first-born, four months old. An earlier case not 
mentioned in The Ci-owii Inn list was "the young wife of Solomon Davis," one of the refu- 
gees from the neighborhood, during the first Indian raid, who died at Bethlehem and was 
buried in that south-side cemetery January 26, 1756. Her infant, bom two days before, died 
and was buried there January 31. Another case was that, on June 15, 1769, of a Mrs. 
Gender who with her husband " had come from Virginia to visit relatives near Lynn " — for- 
merly AUemaengel in Lynn Township, work abandoned December, 1770, and minister trans- 
ferred to former Gnadenhuetten — had taken lodgings at the Crown where a child was born 
June II and baptized, receiving the name Elizabeth, the mother's name. The child died the 
next day and the mother on the 15th and both were buried in that graveyard. Possibly 
missing links of ancestry may be discovered by some one in this note, and traced to un- 
known graves in that now obliterated place of burial. 

4 After another David Zeisberger was in Pennsylvania, the famous missionary is frequently 
referred to in records as Senior, to distinguish him. In the early days of Bethlehem he was 
Junior when his father, whose name was also David, was yet living. Further references to 
him, as the better-known man, will be without any distinction, and if Zeisberger of Nazareth 
is mentioned he will be distinguished as Junior or otherwise. 

5 He is occasionally mentioned in the records in previous references to Gnadenhuetten. 
He occupied one of the houses of Nain for a while, after the removal of the Indians to 
Philadelphia. There one of his children, a daughter, died and at the request of the parents 



1762 1 77 1- 399 

On October 19, a very different view of the presence of the Chris- 
tian Indians at Wechquetank, from that taken in the Irish Settlement, 
came to light, as held by people in the neighborhood of that mission 
who were better qualified to judge and who had more to fear if their 
presence had been dangerous. The diary of Bethlehem states : "A 
petition to the Governor at Philadelphia was taken through here 
from the people living near Wechquetank beyond the Blue Moun- 
tains, in which they very greatly deplored the removal of the Indians 
from Wechquetank, inasmuch as those same Indians had hitherto 
been their only security, they having put more reliance on them 
than on a few soldiers; and praying the Governor, -therefore, to 
either have the aforesaid Indians return to their former place if 
possible, or send an adequate force for their protection, without 
which they would no longer consider themselves safe at their places." 
Those people evidently were not imbued with "border ruffian" spirit, 
and they probably did not share the animosity of some others against 
Moravians, nor share the ideas of a religion which held that the 
Indians were simply the heathen to be exterminated to the glory of 
God. There is no: doubt about it that, while the reckless mihtia 
rangers — in whose exploits many had little confidence as a defence, 
of which there is abundant evidence — werei bent upon killing the 
Indians at Wechquetank, these Indians were, by their vigilance and 
dissuading counsel, when Indian scouts from Wyoming came near, 
holding back the arm of violence raised against the neighborhood. 
This is the secret of the shout of exultation and the jubilant shots 
from the savages hidden in the woods, when they saw these Indians 
leave the place. 

Now the state of things had become so precarious that it was 
resolved, at a general meeting of citizens, October 25, 1763, to put 
Bethlehem in a position of defence, as in 1756. The strong guard 
was again organized, stockades were constructed as before, on sev- 
eral sides of the buildings, where the women and children lived, and 
around the barn-yard and stabling, where the most danger from 
incendiaries was to be feared, and watch-houses were again built 
at the same corners as before. During the subsequent weeks the 
chief alarm at Bethlehem was caused by the burning of the oil-mill 



was buried at Bethlehem, on the hill back of the Indian House, December 9, the Rev. 
Jacob Friis having charge of the funeral. Why that spot vifas selected does not appear. 
There was no cemetery there. During the Revolution that hill became the burial place of 
soldiers who died in the hospital at Bethlehem. 



400 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



on the night of November i8, the same day on which information 
was received that the vacated houses of Wechquetank had been 
burned "by parties unknown." The conflagration at the oil-mill, 
which was later ascertained to have been the work of white despera- 
does of the county, was the nearest approach to the execution of the 
repeated threats to burn Bethlehem to the ground. Four days after 
that, the first experiments were made with the fire-engine that had 
been brought from London by Captain Jacobsen, in accordance with 
the decision of the previous year, but which reached Bethlehem too 
late to be of service at that perilous fire, which greatly endangered 
the water-works and, therefore, the water supply of the town, for 
use in possible further conflagrations as well as for other purposes. 
That the torch was applied first at that point, in view of this, revealed 
an intelligent plan in that act of dastardly wickedness which would 
not have governed the attempts of wild Indians." 




THE PERSEVERANCE FIRE-ENGINE, 

With Modern Environment. 

Built in 1698. 



6 This ancient engine, old already when brought to Bethlehem, subsequently repaired and 
improved several times and long used, is now preserved as a relic in the museum of the 
Young Men's Missionary Society. At its first trial, November 22, 1763, it sent a jet ot 
water over the roof of the Brethren's House. In April, 1773, after being repaired, it threw 
a stream twenty feet above the terrace on the roof of that building, and its flow was 78 
gallons a minute. Its cost in London was £4;} 12 s. It was brought on the //o/e, which 
reached New York October 21. Captain Garrison and his wife returned after an absence in 
Europe of seven years, to pass their remaining days. Here for a season he did service as 
cicerone. He died in September, 17S1, and his widow, Mary .\nn, m. n. Brandt, in March. 
1790. Other passengers were the Rev. John Fromelt, called as general superintendent of 
all the organizations of single men ; Paul Tiersch, first co-director of Nazareth Hall school, 



1762 I77I- 40I 

Meanwhile the move against Wechquetank having been frustrated 
by the departure of the missionary with his Indians, the hostile 
attention of those who were more intent upon retaliation for the 
murder at Stentons, at some point where it would be easiest and 
least dangerous, than upon aiding the public defence in a proper way 
or rationally guarding their own houses against savages, was cen- 
tered upon Nain. The widow of Stenton became the agent in the 
next move, by professing, under oath, to identify a young Indian of 
Nain, by the name of Renatus, as having been with the murderers 
of her husband. Doubtless, in the excitement of the hour, and being 
of those who refused to regard this as, on general principles, improb- 
able, she believed it. It was not the first nor the last time that inno- 
cent men have been thus "identified" in such cases, and many an 
innocent man has in this way lost his life at the hands of an infuri- 
ated avenging mob, as at one time threatened to be the fate of Rena- 
tus. The men who had been persuaded in October, by a just and 
cool-headed neighbor, probably John Jennings, Sheriff of North- 
ampton County, to refrain from a proposed attack upon the Indians 
at Nain, now eagerly availed themselves of this new development 
to spread bitterness against that peaceable and loyal band. Renatus 
was formally arrested under a legal warrant from Philadelphia on 
October 29, 1763, by George Klein, of Bethlehem, deputy of John 
Jennings, Sheriff. The missionary Schmick, at this time stationed 
at Nain, was appointed by Klein as further deputy to take him to 
Philadelphia. Renatus was a son of old Jacob, "the patriarch of 
Nain," the only survivor of the first three converts baptized in 1742 
by Ranch at Oley. This old Indian accompanied his accused son 
to Philadelphia ; Klein, von Marschall and others following. The 
excitement was intense and, whatever might be the result of the 
trial, it was evident that the end of the sojourn of the Indians at Nain 
was near. At Philadelphia, where they arrived, October 30 — the day 
of the earthquake and of the arrival of young John Penn to take the 
Governor's seat — the best legal counsel was secured to insure the 
accused man a fair trial. No less a man than John Dickinson under- 

and in 1771 ordained and transferred to Wachovia, N.C.; .Susan von Gersdorf, called as 
spiritual overseer of the single women at Bethlehem; Anna Salome Steinmann, called as 
spiritual overseer of older girls; Maria Wilhelmina Werwing, who became spiritual over- 
seer of the widows ; also the following single women : Justina Erd ; Maria Barbara Horn, 
cook in the Sisters' House ; Dorothea Loeffler, stewardess of the Sisters' House ; Fredericka. 
Pletscher and Elizabeth Seidlitz. 



402 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

took the defence. Renatus, after sitting in prison in Philadelphia 
for seven months, was brought to Easton, where his final trial took 
place, the third week in June. The evidence examined was so flimsy 
and the impression of his innocence and of the unrighteous animus 
of those who had started and were pushing the prosecution 
was so overwhelming, that in the face of all the turbulent 
clamor, he was quickly and easily acquitted, on June 21, 
1764, and then, when his life was manifestly in danger at 
the hands of men as lawless and infuriated as the savages, 
he was taken back to Philadelphia a few days later, under guard, for 
safety; for all his fellow-converts from Nain were there under the 
protection of the Government, excepting his aged father and his 
wife, who, with more than fifty others, had fallen victims, in the inter- 
val, of small-pox. Directly after his arrest, an effort was made by 
influential men at Philadelphia to have special measures adopted by 
the Government to secure the Indians of Wechquetank and Nain by 
their confinement under guard and restrictions at the latter place, 
with a small allowance for their support in lieu of the privilege of 
hunting and fishing, from which they would be cut oS by being thus 
kept close within their village, as in a fort. This proposition was 
voted down in the Assembly, and it was finally resolved to have them 
all brought to Philadelphia in order to meet three ends ; to keep the 
Government pledge of protection, to have them under the eye of the 
Government and cut oS from all communication with other Indians 
in order to satisfy those who suspected them of treachery, and to 
end the turmoil which their continued presence in Northampton 
County caused there. This measure, of questionable expediency, 
caused more serious disturbance, perplexity and expense than the first 
plan would have involved. The order for the removal of the Indians 
reached Bethlehem on November 5, 1763. It was communicated 
to them the next day, when, upon demand, they surrendered all their 
guns and then commenced to pack together their effects for the jour- 
ney. November 8, Grube arrived from Nazareth with the forty-four 
Indians from Wechquetank. In the afternoon they joined those 
from Nain, on the south side of the Lehigh, seventy-seven in num- 
ber. Wagons were in readiness to convey the aged, the infirm 
women and the children, with the wives of the missionaries, who 
heroically accompanied the caravan, while their husbands went afoot 
with the rest of the Indian men and women. A sheriff and guard 
were on hand to escort them, and thus they set out for Philadelphia, 



1762 1 77 1- 403 

where they arrived in the forenoon on November 11. Their destina- 
tion was the barracks that had been constructed in 1755 in the 
"Northern Liberties." Their first experience was to face the fury of 
a mob, to the indignities and menaces of which — the soldiers at the 
barracks joining with the frenzied populace — those noble women, 
as well as their husbands, were subjected, with the Indians. The 
authorities were compelled to change their plan, and from the bar- 
racks they were taken, amid the hootmgs and cursings of the rabble, 
to Province Island, where they were quartered. The missionaries 
Grube and Roth, their wives and David Zeisberger were with them, 
and in December, when Zeisberger returned to Bethlehem, Schmick 
took his place. It would lie outside the scope of these pages to fol- 
low their trying experiences in detail. All features and all versions 
of what ensued have been often narrated, from every standpoint; 
from that of the Government and that of the mob; that of the city 
and that of the country; that of the Moravians, of the Quakers and 
of the Scotch-Irish people of the frontiers who had mainly led the 
crusade, from its beginning, against Moravian missionaries and their 
converts and against all compromise with Indians of any kind. 

The extreme movement in this crusade, by men among whom this 
sentiment had developed, under the great provocations of the time, 
into fierce and lawless fanaticism, brought on the most critical epi- 
sode in the experiences of these Indians and their missionaries at 
Philadelphia. This was the well-known descent upon the capital by 
the Paxton rangers early in 1764, with the intention of exterminating 
the protected converts on Province Island, after these desperate men 
had, in the previous December, rivaled the deeds of the savages by 
slaughtering the peaceable Indians of Conestoga Manor. This 
attempt to get at the Moravian Indians in February, 1764, which, for 
a while, threatened to make the city of Philadelphia the scene of riot 
and carnage, but was averted by the show of armed resistance in 
which even young Quakers, in the dire emergency, joined, and by 
the dissuading influence of leading citizens, was the most con- 
spicuous event in Pennsylvania at that time. All that remained of 
Moravian missions among the Indians was embodied in that band of 
Tiunted fugitives on Province Island. Around it, for the moment, 
were concentrated in a boisterous climax — afifrighting at the time, 
pathetic so far as that mission residue was concerned, ludicrous in 
some aspects, when looked back upon — the chronic antagonisms of 
contending political parties, incompatible races and creeds, divergent 



404 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

views of policy, competitive local interests, all bearing upon the one 
question of the hour — the Indian problem. In the subsequent Sep- 
tember, Pontiac's war came nominally to an end and, early in Decem- 
ber, peace with the Indians was proclaimed at Philadelphia. The 
good tidings reached Bethlehem, December 7, 1764. Quiet had been 
restored in the neighborhood, the sensation connected with the trial 
of Renatus had subsided, the last of the two hundred refugees who 
had again found shelter at Bethlehem had long returned to their 
homes, and strict vigilance was no longer considered necessary, when 
the good news was communicated to the congregation. 

In the meantime another important personal change had taken 
place at Bethlehem. The man who was the pioneer leader in the 
Forks of the Delaware, and next to Spangenberg had stood pre- 
eminent — Bishop Peter Boehler, had taken final leave of America 
and returned to Europe. He and his wife left Bethlehem on May 7, 
1764, the day on which, twenty-four years before, he first came to the 
neighborhood. They sailed with Captain Jacobsen on the Hope on 
May 16.'' 

On April 26, prior to his departure, he had held a Synod at Beth- 
lehem, at which the scope and plan of the boarding-school at Naza- 
reth Hall were elaborated to embrace not only training for mis- 
sionary service, but a " paedagogium" course in different branches of 
knowledge, with a view to other pursuits. Things had again assumed 
a sufficiently normal condition that there was encouragement to plan 
for the future, and even in the matter of missions among the Indians, 
the outlook was not considered hopeless. 

Boehler took occasion to caution the people against participating 
in political discussion and party strife. This was then rampant under 
the new Lieutenant Governor, John Penn, inexperienced, unfamiliar 

7 Besides Bishop Boehler, his wife and two children, there were four other passengers from 
Bethlehem : Anna Rosina Anders, John and Mary Antes and Dr. John Michael Schmidt 
who had come to Pennsylvania with Spangenberg in 1754. He is a somewhat unfamiliar 
person. He seems to have remained in New York until March, 1755, when he came to 
Bethlehem with Boehler. In November, 1755, he went to Lancaster County, with George 
Klein. He married Anna Elizabeth Smouth, widow of Justice Edward Smouth, of Lancas- 
ter. She died in October, 1757. He seems to have had an apothecary's shop there which 
after the death of his wife he transferred to Lititz for a while. Subsequently he came to 
Bethlehem, where he assisted Dr. Otto and looked after patients at Nazareth. He also 
served as one of the organists at Bethlehem during his last sojourn. His name deserves a 
place among the medical practitioners of olden time in the Lehigh Valley. He was called 
a doctor when he came to America, and was then a widower. He was born September 
28, 1697. 



1762 — ^n^- 405 

with the situation, assuming office under great disadvantages at such 
a time, and laclting both strength and tact to deal with the growing 
movement to overthrow the Proprietary Government and have an 
executive appointed directly by the Crown, which was being fostered 
by Franklin and other strong men of the Province. Agitation was 
rife, and the Indian question with others, on which parties were again 
quite differently divided, complicated matters. The position of the 
Moravian leaders was that of conservative loyalty towards the Pro- 
prietary Government, as well as towards the Crown as supreme. 
This was, with them, a matter of general principle as well as policy, 
in connection with what they held to be the calling of the Church, as 
an international Unity of Brethren, propagating the gospel in many 
lands and under different governments. Their calling, as they viewed 
it, was not to help make and unmake governments, but to use the 
privileges and opportunities which the existing government, what- 
ever it might be, afforded to pursue the one chief object which was 
the same everywhere, and to seek the peace of the places where they 
dwelt. While, in consistency with this standard there is no dicussion 
of the great questions of the time in Moravian records, there is 
occasional reference to the discord and excitement on occasions like 
that of the election of an Assemblyman in September, 1764. Indirectly 
the effects of the efforts being made in that, and the following years 
"by the British Government, burdened with the debts of protracted 
war, to press more revenue out of the colonies, were felt in thei 
struggles at the polls on such occasions. It was not long before the 
question of taxation without representation, the obnoxious Stamp 
Act and the ''Declaratory Act" which followed the repeal of the other 
{1764-66) were topics of conversation, at least among English 
speaking people, in all corners, even of the back townships, where 
men gathered at the mills or at the Squire's office and heard matters 
expounded by some one who was better informed or who regularly 
read a newspaper. 

At Bethlehem there were more men of education and general 
information and more men who read the newspapers and often got 
away from home than could probably have been found in any other 
town of its size in Pennsylvania. They were, moreover, near the 
■county-seat, where Court statedly met, and there was constant 
contact with men who went to and fro on such business. Further- 
more, there was not a point at the same distance from Philadelphia 
so much visited by people from that city, and, with few exceptions. 



406 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the visitors were of the intelUgent classes, very many of them persons 
of prominent position. That the men of Bethlehem had little to say 
on the public questions of the time was by no means an evidence 
that they knew and thought less about them than those who continu- 
ally "talked poHtics." The favorite popular idea in modern times, 
that Bethlehem, in those days, was a secluded hamlet cut off from 
the world, a kind of large, quiet cloister around which men traveled, 
wondering what was inside, is a very great fallacy. It was, amid its 
surroundings of that time, even less so than, by comparison with 
other progressing towns, it was, half a century later, when things 
elsewhere were moving and Bethlehem was self-centered and 
stagnant. 

The year 1765, which brought general restoration of orderly life 
and activity and renewed vigor in trades and industries, also brought 
the end of what may be called the Indian history of Bethlehem. 
Under the settlements and arrangements which followed the termin- 
ation of the Pontiac War, so far as Pennsylvania was concerned, the 
Moravian Indians were released from the barracks at Philadelphia 
to be removed in a body to the Wyoming Valley. On March 22, in 
the midst of a heavy snow-storm they arrived at Bethlehem. They 
left about sixty of their number behind them, buried in unmarked 
graves. There were now eighty-three souls belonging to the mission. 
With them were a number of other peaceable Indians who had 
surrendered themselves, secured the protection of the Government 
and latterly occupied the barracks with the Moravian Indians. They 
were under the responsible escort of Major Thomas Apty, Govern- 
ment Commissary, with a small guard. They were taken to the 
houses at Nain to rest a few days. Their arrival awakened much 
sympathetic interest at Bethlehem. The inclement weather continued 
during the following days. On Sunday, March 24, the snow lay 
two feet deep, and such a high wind prevailed that no paths could 
be opened and services had to be omitted. At the evening service 
on March 26, the letter of thanks sent to the Governor by the 
Indians, before they left the barracks, was read to the congregation. 
March 31, a farewell service was held at Nain which is described as 
a deeply touching occasion. April i, William Allen, Jr., arrived from 
Philadelphia, as a representative of the Governor, to give personal 
attention to their secure passage through the country between Beth- 
lehem and the mountains, because it was learned that an attack 
upon them had been threatened by vindictive men. 



1762 1 77 1- 407 

The next day he had a consultation with the Justices of the several 
Townships in reference to this matter, and arranged for the time 
and manner of their departure. April 3 — Wednesday of the Holy 
Passion Week — they set out on their journey to the Indian country, 
accompanied by the missionaries Zeisberger and Schmick, and 
escorted by Major Apty, Lieutenant Hundsecker, Sheriff Kichline 
and Justice Moore. Passing through Bethlehem, they again thanked 
the people for all the kindness they had experienced and were warmly 
commended to the Divine protection. A brief halt was made at the 
Moravian outpost, the Rose Inn, where they were again speeded on 
their way by words of good cheer and benisons from a number of 
persons, gathered there to greet them in passing. The next day they 
reached the ruins of Wechquetank where they built temporary huts 
of bark and remained until after Easter. Then they continued their 
journey through the wilderness, a journey of great hardship, and 
reached Machwihilusing (Wyalusing) on May 9. There a village was 
laid out, with gardens and fields, and there a new mission was founded 
which received the name Friedenshuetten — Habitations of Peace — like 
the temporary Indian village of twenty years before, at Bethlehem. 
They were permitted to remain there in peace for seven years. Then 
came again the call to move on, and in 1772 the one hundred and 
fifty-one people to which this Indian congregation had again grown 
had to leave their beautiful Friedenshuetten in the Wyoming Valley, 
and with the fifty-three of the Schechschiquanunk mission which had 
arisen west of the Susquehanna, proceeded westward to Ohio, to 
make the Tuscarawas Valley historic. Thus, with the departure of 
those Indians from Bethlehem on April 3, 1765, Moravian Indian 
missions in the Lehigh Valley came to an end. The houses of Nain 
had been sold at auction, on March 30, to citizens of Bethlehem. 
April 13, they were taken down and removed. Six of them, among 
which was the chapel of the village, were set up again in Bethlehem 
and made use of for many years.' 

During the summer and autumn of 1765, numerous visits by persons 
of prominence are alluded to in the diary of Bethlehem. The conspic- 
uous connection of the place and its people with the dealings between 
the Government and the Indians had attracted the attention of some 
of these who otherwise would have taken little notice of the Moravian 

8 One of them remains standing at the south-west comer of Market and Cedar Streets. 
The old chapel, until 1868, stood a little way above that, on the same side of the street, on 
the site of the present " Chapter House." 



408 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

town. The weekly trips now made by the "stage-wagon" which 
George Klein, in September, 1763, put on the road between Beth- 
lehem and Philadelphia made travel more convenient, and the Sun 
Inn had already acquired the reputation of being by far the best 
house of entertainment outside of Philadelphia and its immediate 
environs. The fact that such a hotel was to be found so far up the 
country added inducements to many to visit the picturesque region 
of the Lehigh Valley, not merely with a view to investments in 
land farther up where desirable purchases could be made, but also 
in mere search of recreation and for the purpose of hunting and 
fishing; Bethlehem being a convenient point from which to make 
tours into the back country in various directions. Here and there 
men of wealth were selecting spots at which to erect a "forest lodge" 
or a remote country-seat within a day's journey, to and fro, of 
Bethlehem. One such place quite near, that became the nucleus of 
a city, now the most populous center in the Lehigh Valley, appears 
upon the scene at this time. It was the country-seat of the Aliens on 
the Jordan Creek which received the name Trout Hall. Already in 
December, 1763, the diary of Bethlehem refers to a party with "young 
Mr. Allen," who were on a hunting trip and passed the night at the 
Sun. On June 6, 1764, the first mention is made of "Northampton 
Town," at that point up the river. In July, 1765, Governor John 
Penn, who was a son-in-law of Chief Justice WiUiam Allen, was here 
with his brother and young Mr. Allen, and they were guests at the 
Inn. They paid a visit, as it seems, to that place. In October and 
November, "Mr. Penn, brother of the Governor," and other men 
from Philadelphia, were again here at intervals, some of them 
engaged in hunting, as it appears, and on December i, the Governor 
himself was again in the neighborhood and stopped over night at 
the Sun. Their movements indicate that they came and went 
between Bethlehem and "Northampton Town," and perhaps plans 
in reference to the prospective town were combined with the enjoy- 
ment sought by sportsmen on these occasions. 

During the following summer (1766) there were again many per- 
sons of note, in connection with public affairs of the time, among 
the visitors at Bethlehem. One of these, in September, with a party 
from Philadelphia, was Sir Thomas Stirling, captain of the Royal 
Highlanders, later prominent in the Revolution, who had in the pre- 
vious months accomplished a march of over three thousand miles 
with his troops. 



1762 1 77 1- 409 

In the autumn of 1765, however, a visitor had arrived from Europe 
whose presence was of far more interest to the people at Bethlehem 
than that of such persons. This was Bishop David Nitschmann, Jr., 
often ofificiall)' styled the "Syndic." He was sent by the central 
board in Europe to make a thorough inspection of things, to 
announce and explain the enactments of the important General 
Synod of 1764, at which the foundations of a proper constitutional 
church government were laid to take the place of the system that 
had existed to the death of Zinzendorf in 1760. Nitschmann was a 
member of the board that had been administering the government 
of the Church under the ad interim plan, and now was a member of 
the General Board of Syndics which administered constitutional 
affairs and represented the government of the Church over against 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities and the public generally." He was 
accompanied by his wife and reached Bethlehem, November 28, 
1765, having come over on the Hope with the Rev. Joseph Neisser 
and his wife. Their visit gave great pleasure to the people and was 
regarded as of much importance. Bethlehem was at this time the 
center of a body of Moravian work embracing, besides the local con- 
gregation, those on the Nazareth land and the new settlement of 
Lititz, fourteen congregations and five preaching-places in Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, New Jersey, the New England States and Mary- 
land, together with the transplanted Indian mission. Nitschmann 
visited the most of these places and convened a Synod which was in 
session at Bethlehem from May 30 to June 4, 1766. One of his tasks 
at Bethlehem was a thorough examination, assortment and arrange- 
ment of the archives. Much of the accumulated manuscript matter 
was filed to remain at the place, some was taken by him to Europe 
and some was destroyed.^" He remained until September, 1766. 

9 David Nitschmann, Jr., was a younger man than Bishop David Nitschmann — since 1760 
living in retirement at Bethlehem — who, with his uncle, Father David Nitschmann, founded 
Bethlehem. This official visitor of 1765 was, with his senior namesake, among the three 
David Nitschmanns who, with Zeisberger and Toeltschig, were called " the five Moravian 
Churchmen" of 1724. The General Synod of 1764 instituted the General Boards in 
control : the Directory, in general oversight ; the Board of Syndics, as stated above ; and 
the Board of Wardens, in charge of the finances. 

'° The oldest extant catalogue of the Bethlehem archives was compiled by him at this 
time. In 1769, he was appoihted General Archivist of the Unity, this being considered a 
post of much importance. Zinzendorf once said " Die Archive ganzer Kircheti giebt man 
in keine imgewaschcne Haende^ 



4IO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

On the i6th of that month he embarked at Philadelphia, with some 
others who accompanied him, to return to Europe. 

A general toning up of things and a revival of cheerfulness, zeal 
and harmony, after the disturbing experiences that had again been 
passed through, resulted from his visit. Various matters, in external 
affairs, were gotten into better order and simplified. It was decided,, 
among other things, to lease the farms of the place to individual ten- 
ants, as a more business-like and profitable arrangement, and less 
troublesome. There was a large increase during 1766 in the demand 
for wares from the Bethlehem mantifactories, so that the most of 
them were decidedly profitable. Towards the end of 1765, a very 
substantial stone building^^ had been erected in the place of the oil- 
mill that was burned down in November, 1763. At the time when 
the rafters were set up, in October, 1765, it was referred to in the 
records with some pride, as one of the most solid and durable struc- 
tures in the country. It was equipped with two water-wheels in the 
center. One was to drive the machinery of the oil-mill, with the 
hulling and stamping machines and the fan in the loft. The other 
one was to operate the bark grinder and other appurtenances of the 
tannery, a hemp-stamper, "of the kind in use on the Rhine," in the 
first story, and a rubber or grater for hemp in the second story. 

The active inception of a larger and eventually more interesting 
building enterprise comes into view at this time. It was the erection 
of a home at Bethlehem for the widows, projected some years before. 
This constituted one of the subjects of deliberation at the Synod in 
June, 1766, while Bishop Nitschmann, Jr., was in Bethlehem, for it 
concerned all the ministers and missionaries present and, to some 
extent, the membership of other congregations ; for, through various 
circumstances, many a woman from Lititz and the Nazareth places 
and even from other points would be likely to become an inmate of 
such a home. The cramped and uncomfortable quarters in the log 
house at Nazareth were commented upon and it was remarked that 
it was a hardship for women, after the death of their husbands, to 
be compelled, for want of a "choir house" for widows at Bethlehem 
or other suitable quarters, to move up to that house. An earnest 
appeal for support in this undertaking was written by Sister Wer- 
wing, the superintendent of the widows, and was communicated at 
Bethlehem on June 19, 1766. On December 2, the site was selected 
in the garden opposite the girls' school ; the original idea of build- 

" The building in which the present water-works of Bethlehem are contained. 




WIDOWS' HOUSE VIEWS 



1762 I77I- 411 

ing it at the east end of the Sisters' House having been abandoned 
because an extension of that establishment was now had in view. 
On January 8, 1767, the final plans were adopted and the work was 
soon commenced. The corner-stone was laid April 27, with solemn 
and impressive services. The widows had all come from Nazareth 
and were present, together with three who lived at Bethlehem on 
account of duties in which they were engaged. The building was 
not entirely finished and ready to be dedicated and occupied until 
October, 1768. After a farewell service at Nazareth on the previous 
day, the whole company of widows who had been living there came 
to Bethlehem on the morning of October 12. A ceremonious recep- 
tion was accorded them and on that day their new home, with its 
chapel, was solemnly dedicated in the manner customary in those 
days. An addition, commenced in 1794 and finished the next year, 
was built at the east end.^- 

Another project for the benefit of widows of the Church began 
to be discussed when the important end of providing them a suitable 
home had been reached. This was to institute a fund for their 
benefit, so that those who were left without resources would by this 
means be assured of something towards meeting their needs. An 
association for this purpose had been in existence a few years in 
England, formed by men who, by paying a certain sum, acquired 
membership and thereby secured for their wives, if they survived 
them, a share of the income from the interest of the capital thus 
created. The matter was deliberated upon at the General Synod of 
the Church in 1769, and the formation of such associations at Beth- 
lehem and elsewhere was encouraged. A modest beginning was 
made in 1770. It is referred to in the records of the time as "the 
founding of a society for the sustentation of poor widows." At a 
meeting of the Elders of Bethlehem on September 3 of that year, the 
constitution of the English society and a draft of a similar one for 
Bethlehem were considered and a committee was appointed to work 
out this draft and report. On September 15, at a meeting of married 
men of Bethlehem and other places who had joined, the articles 

12 The generous provision by which this historic building was devoted to its present laud- 
able use is a matter of recent history. In 1871 the late John Jordan, Jr., of Philadelphia, 
made a gift of $ 10,000 to maintain it as a home for widows and daughters of Moravian 
ministers, and other women who have been engaged in church service, under terms and 
conditions set forth in an agreement between him and the executive authorities of the 
Church, made in due form of law. In 1S89, through the munificence of the same kind 
donor, the commodious annex to the rear was built. 



412 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

reported were adopted and six trustees were elected to develop the 
details of organization. Before the close of the year there were more 
than a hundred investors. The first general meeting was held, Janu- 
ary 2, 1771. The number had then reached a hundred and ten. Six 
"stewards" were elected to take care of and administer the funds. 
This, in brief, was the beginning of "The Widows' Society of Beth- 
lehem," probably the oldest existing beneficial society in America, 
which since that beginning has disbursed more than $177,000 in 
small annuities to the widows of deceased members, and is yet pros- 
pering in its unpretentious work. 

During the year 1767, when the building of the Widows' House 
w.as in progress, the dwelling accommodations for families in the 
village were enlarged by the erection of other houses. With this 
gradual increase of separate households and development of a more 
ordinary village life, more attention had to be given to perfecting the 
system of ordinances and regulations needed to meet these changing 
conditions. Thus on the last two days of June, what was styled a 
general Polizei-Tag — a kind of town meeting, was held, at which a 
revised and improved code of rules was communicated, with various 
connected matters, duly expounded and impressed. On the first of 
those days the general statutes embodied in the Brotherly Agree- 
ment, which all male residents who were voting members had to 
sign, were taken up. On the second day the fire regulations par- 
ticularly engaged attention. Such a Polizei-Tag was periodically 
appointed during those years, and in subsequent times, to refresh the 
memories of the people and to bring necessary matters to their 
attention ; for there were some in those days, as well as in modern 
times, who forgot the ordinances and the statutes, and even some 
who violated the rules and needed to be admonished. 

During this year some reconstruction of local school arrange- 
ments again took place. In 1764 a separate day-school for girls, in 
addition to the boarding-school, and a day-school for boys had been 
established, because it was not practicable to continue the complete 
consolidation which had existed for a while. The girls' school 
became unwieldy and the boys could not all be sent to Nazareth 
Hall after they outgrew the nursery or infant school, which was 
yet maintained at Bethlehem, like that for girls, both on a small 
scale. This day-school for boys was now moved into a room in the 
finally completed addition to the Brethren's House on September 
25. Thus at the close of the period embraced in this chapter, the 



1762 I77I- 413 

schools at Bethlehem consisted of the infant schools, in which quite 
young children of missionaries lived, the day-schools for boys and 
girls and the boarding-school for girls. 

The arrangement that had been decided upon to put the several 
farms in charge of tenants was also carried into effect at the end of 
March, 1769. Conrad Ernst was the first tenant of "the new farm,"^^ 
that at the Crown Inn, including the fields and improvements of the 
former Ysselstein place. Marcus Kiefer, blacksmith at Shamokin 
when the Indian ravages commenced in 1755, took the "Weygandt 
Farm"" on the south side. \Villiam Angel took the "Burnside 
Farm," up the Monocacy, and the Bethlehem Farm continued to be 
operated on the old basis by Frederick Boeckel. It may, in this 
connection, be mentioned, on account of interesting associations 
about to be referred to, that at this time the household organization, 
yet maintained at Friedensthal, ceased. Dorst Alleman leased the 
Friedensthal farm, while Herman Loesch yet continued to run the 
mill for the general treasury under the existing arrangement, as it 
had before been run for the General Economy. 

When the Friedensthal organization was dissolved, the Rev. John 
Brandmiller, its chaplain, retired to Bethlehem. His connection 
with it had added a historic feature to the associations of the spot 
that was of peculiar interest. Being a printer by trade originally, 
he there, in that secluded Genleinhaus on the Bushkill, set up the first 
Moravian printing-press and conducted the first Moravian printing 
oiifice in America, from 1763 to 1767. His printing-press was that 
used in the establishment of the Church in Lindsey House, Chelsea, 
London, and brought to America on the Hope, in the autumn of 1761. 
At Friedensthal, prior to November, 1763, he printed portions, at 
least, of a translation into the Delaware language of Lieberkiihn's 
Harmony of the Gospels and a collection of hymns in that tongue, 
the work of the Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube, while he was stationed 
at Wechquetank. In 1767, he printed the collection of daily texts 
of the Church for the vear. Bevond these and two odes, one for 



13 This was last known as " The Luckenbach Farm." John Lewis Luckenbach, son of 
Adam Luckenbach, the school-master of Goshenhoppen, who, already in 1742, was a visitor 
to Bethlehem, but never a member of the Church, was the successor of Ernst. It was sub- 
sequently operated successively by his son John Adam, his grandson John David, and finally, 
after 1845, by his gieat-grandson Thomas David Luckenbach. 

14 This farm, later in charge of John Christian Clewell, John Hoffert and his son Samuel 
Hoffert, successively, was last known as the " Hoffert Farm." 



414 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Christmas Eve in 1766, and one for Great Sabbath in 1767 — this 
being probably Brandmiller's last work — no imprints of that Frie- 
densthal press are known or referred to in records. On March 19 
of that year, the printing outfit was transferred to Nazareth Hall 
and the next day Brandmiller removed to Bethlehem. It seems 
strange that it was not brought to Bethlehem by him and further 
operated. Its subsequent history is enveloped in obscurity. ^^ 

Among the men prominently and actively connected with official 
work at Bethlehem, one re-appears upon the scene who had begun 
his American career in 1754 in Pennsylvania, but for a few years had 
been stationed in North Carolina. This was the Rev. John Ettwein, 
who returned to Bethlehem with his family on September 20, 1766, 
and entered upon a long term of service. In the Bethlehem pastoral 
force and general local management, as well as in the directing 
board for all the churches and missions, particularly during the 
Revolution, and eventually bishop and president of that board, 
he was in many respects the most conspicuous, forceful and widely- 
known man. Times and circumstances were approaching in which 
a man Hke Ettwein was needed at Bethlehem. In September, 1768, 
he, with Dettmers, the Warden of the Congregation ; Arboe, the 
Warden of the Brethren's House, and Oberlin, the store-keeper and 
superintendent of traffic with Philadelphia, became naturalized citi- 
zens of Pennsylvania. Now and then, several men or groups together 
availed themselves of this privilege as circumstances rendered it 
desirable. At the beginning of Ettwein's new term of service at 
Bethlehem he was thrown particularly into contact with many lead- 
ing men in various public offices and walks of life. He was one of 
those who had acquired the ready use of English and was adapted 
in other ways to intercourse with all kinds of people. There were 
not many native-born Englishmen among the men in official posi- 
tion at Bethlehem at this time, and Bishop Nathanael Seidel was 
absent in Europe on official business from March, 1769, to May, 
1770. 

15 It is singular that a printing-press did not figure among the numerous industries of Beth- 
lehem in those days. There is reference in the records to a proposition, in the spring of 
1755) '0 purchase a press in Philadelphia, but in June, Brandmiller, after examining it, found 
that it would not suit and the matter was dropped. Printing was done for Bethlehem by 
the Saurs, of Germantown, and at one time an agreement was m.ide with the Ephrata Brother- 
hood to have a hymn-book printed there, but for some reason they threw up the contract. 
The most of the Bethlehem printing was done, for some years, in the office of Henry Miller, 
in Philadelphia. 



1762 I77I- 4IS 

The Governor of Pennsylvania and his suite were in Bethlehem 
again from April 27 to May i, 1768. He examined the various 
industries of the place with special attention, was particularly 
impressed by the singing of the girls in the boarding-school, watched 
the process of bush-net fishing in the Lehigh with much interest, 
took a drive tO' "Allen's Town" — so called, as well as Northampton, 
at this time in the diary — made careful inquiry into Moravian doc- 
trines and principles, stating afterwards that he had been given 
erroneous information on this subject, and studied a copy of the 
printed Acta Fratrum Unitatis in Anglia containing the various points 
in which the Church had given an account of itself in connection with 
the Act of Parliament in its favor in 1749. On June 16, following. 
Lord Montague, Governor of South Carolina, and his lady, with 
suite, arrived in Bethlehem. He, in like manner, made a careful 
study of everything of importance and interest, and expressed the 
wish that a Moravian settlement might be founded in his colony 
also. The names of Justice Lawrence, Dr. Shippen, Jr., Dr. Harris 
and the Rev. Jacob Duche, of Philadelphia, are mentioned among the 
visitors during that summer. 

Another Moravian visitor from Europe, whose errand was of inter- 
est, arrived at Bethlehem, November 26, 1768. This was the Rev. 
Christian George Andrew Oldendorp, who had been spending the 
previous part of the year and much of the preceding year in the 
Danish West Indies, studying the geography, fauna and flora of the 
Islands, the history and language of the negroes — in which latter 
task he was greatly aided by the Rev. John Boehner, one of the Beth- 
lehem pioneers, and at this time the patriarch among the West India 
missionaries — and particularly the history of the mission work, and 
its condition at the time, preparatory to writing an exhaustivetreatise. 
He came to Bethlehem principally to collect further material from 
the mass of West India diaries, reports and correspondence in the 
archives. The results of his labors remained in more than three 
thousand pages of manuscript, from which, in 1777, an extract was 
prepared by the Rev. John Jacob Bossart, professor in the Moravian 
Theological Seminary at Barby in Saxony, and put into print in a 
volume of over a thousand pages, which is one of the most interest- 
ing and valuable early contributions to Moravian missionary litera- 
ture. Oldendorp remained in Bethlehem until the end of March, 
1769, and on April 17 sailed with Bishop Seidel for Europe. He had 
"brought with him to Bethlehem a considerable collection of natural 



4l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

curiosities from the West Indies which he presented to the Single 
Brethren's House, where they were classified and arranged for exhi- 
bition. That collection of Natnralia brought by Oldendorp from the 
oldest mission field of the Moravian Church constituted, therefore, 
the nucleus of the first museum at Bethlehem, adding to the things 
to be seen by people who were "shown about." There were again 
many such visitors during the summer of 1769, and old Captain Gar- 
rison, courteous, widely-traveled, well-informed and familiar with 
four languages, was now doing the honors as cicerone of Bethle- 
hem. Among the visitors of that season was again the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, from April 24 to 29, with his wife and others from 
Philadelphia. While here they went to Allen's Town on the 26th. 
Another, the first week in June, was Governor Franklin, of New 
Jersey, with his wife "and a certain Mr. O'Donnel." 

The New Jersey Governor "promised all favor to the new settle- 
ment" in that Province. This was the settlement later called Hope, 
on the land of Samuel Green, referred to in a previous chapter. The 
land having been purchased and the founding of a settlement having 
been determined, Peter Worbas, the first keeper of the Sun Inn, 
removed to the place in April, 1769, to oversee the erection of a first 
house, which was finished and occupied in September. On October i, 
the first sermon was preached there by Ettwein, who was most 
energetically interested in fostering the enterprise, which stood in 
such intimate connection with Bethlehem while it existed. Worbas 
was accompanied, on April 3, by several officials of Bethlehem and by 
Frederick Leinbach, who soon after became the leading man of the 
new place in secular affairs and keeper of the store opened in 1771. 
Christiansen, the famous Bethlehem mill-wright, also went along to 
take the first steps in his important part of the founding. The Hope 
grist-mill acquired celebrity, is referred to with interest in the writ- 
ings of various notable travelers, such as the Marquis du Chastellux, 
of LaFayette's stafif in the Revolution, and played an important part 
as an institution of the region in those years. A number of persons 
who had figured in various positions at Bethlehem and Nazareth 
became identified with the fortunes of Hope at one time or another. 
The place was first given the name Greenland, when the deeds were 
executed, January 23, 1771, after that of the former owner of the 
land. It bore this name until after the resolution of the General 
Directory in Europe to establish a regular church village there, like 
Lititz. This was in 1774, on November 25 and 26 of which year, the 



1762 177I- 417 

village was laid out and in February, 1775, received the name Hope, 
which, during the subsequent decades, appears as frequently in the 
diary of Bethlehem as the name of Nazareth. 

In June, 1770, after Bishop Nathanael Seidel returned from the 
General Synod held in Europe the preceding year, a process of 
re-organization began at Bethlehem which was completed in Novem- 
ber, 1771, and marked an epoch as distinct as that of 1762. It was 
so intimately related to the constructive work of that period in the 
constitution and government of the Moravian Church as a whole, or 
the Unity of the Brethren as it was then constitutionally called, that 
some idea of this broader constructive work is necessary in order to 
understand the situation that was produced at Bethlehem. There 
were several distinct stages. The first, that of preliminary and pre- 
paratory measures, opened ten years before the death of Zinzendorf, 
when the beginning of the financial troubles treated of in a former 
chapter, occasioned the first steps towards some kind of economic 
administration besides the primitive personal one which he and his 
wife had been exercising like heads of a large family. It extended 
to his death, when some form of government quite independent of 
his unique personal relation to afifairs was first possible and at the 
same time became necessary. The second stage was the ad interim 
system, already referred to, which was then introduced until a Gen- 
eral Synod could be held to proceed with the establishment of con- 
stitution and government such as was required. It was during this 
period, 1760 to 1764, that the dissolution of the General Economy 
and the first re-organization at Bethlehem took place, and therefore 
the arrangements then instituted were regarded as also ad interiin. 
Then followed the formative constitutional stage, from 1764 to 1775, 
embracing the work of three General Synods. While the first two, 
1764 and 1769, are considered pre-eminently the Constitutional 
Synods, the formative work, affecting not only the whole but each 
church settlement in all the particulars of its organization and 
various activities and interests, continued until 1775. The synodical 
legislation of that year established a balance between opposite ten- 
dencies in some points, both of principle and method, that had pre- 
vailed in 1764 and 1769; correcting what the test of experiment 
proved to be defects of both in some measures, particularly in 
economic and financial policies. It also brought the church settle- 
ments in America into a more complete incorporation, with the 
28 



41 8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

European settlements, in the organic Unity, they being governed 
entirely like those in Europe in all particulars. 

The feature of all this which chiefly requires attention in this con- 
nection, is that the Unity, represented by the General Synod, con- 
sisted of a group of European and American church settlements, 
along with a few other associated congregations not so organized, 
and that the whole was under the direction of a board, during the 
intervals between meetings of this Synod, which was elected by and 
responsible to the Synod. The legislation of that Synod and the 
direction exercised by that board, called, after 1769, the Unity's 
Elders' Conference, are not to be had in mind as restricted to purely 
ecclesiastical matters, for in this case they would have only incident- 
ally had a bearing upon the life and doings of Bethlehem. Their 
enactments and administration concerned a group of villages, as 
such, in all particulars; their local organization and government, 
their property and finances, their trades and industries, their educa- 
tional institutions and all the features of their communal life, as well 
as their doctrine and cultus and the missionary activities they prose- 
cuted jointly. Therefore, as regards Bethlehem, the General Synod 
and the Unity's Elders' Conference had to do not only with what are 
now distinguished as its church matters, but with its land and build- 
ings, its farms and mills and workshops, its schools and its village 
government. As the entire Unity, consisting of the aggregate of 
these church villages, was thus directed by a general Elders' Confer- 
ence, so each village was likewise governed by a local Elders' Confer- 
ence. This body consisted entirely of ordained men, together with 
their wives, who also occupied a defined official position, and the 
several women who had the oversight of the Sisters' and Widows' 
Houses and were thus regarded as belonging to the pastoral corps 
of the village. The share taken by women in official oversight was 
a feature that anticipated the most advanced and liberal modern 
ideas, so far as the mere matter of having women participating in 
official counsel was concerned, but it was far from being the result 
of advanced views among the people thus asserting themselves 
under an elective system. These "Elders of the City" were not 
chosen by the people, but consisted e.r officio of the corps of min- 
isters who, under the system carefully and minutely worked out by 
the General Synod, were placed in each village by the Elders' 
Conference of the Unity to have charge of the different departments 
of ministerial work, together with the Warden of the village, who 
also was an ordained man. 



1762 1771- 4^9 

The people of the village were represented by the Village or Con- 
gregation Council — Gemcinrath — which, at different times, varied in 
make-up and in the process by which its personnel was chosen. 
Under all the varying arrangements, however, this was the body that 
represented the people over against the Elders' Conference in whose 
selection they had no voice. They had an opportunity to express 
their choice by electing persons to it even when its membership was 
most restricted and included the largest number of ex officio 
members, although the persons thus elected were subject to con- 
firmation by lot, and the election was thus only a nomination of 
persons from among whom the number to make up the Council was 
drawn. According to a very carefully adjusted scheme, all the divis- 
ions (choirs) of the congregation were represented in the personnel 
of the Congregation Council, but in such a way that the requisite 
number of candidates from each was chosen jointly by the whole 
body. In the course of the varying size and composition of the 
Council, as successive Synods revised and amended the regulations,, 
there was one period when it became most democratic and consisted 
of the entire body of adult communicants, thus most fully covering 
the principle once enunciated by Zinzendorf, and referred to in the 
General Synod after the constitutional foundations had been laid, 
that in the church villages there must always be a Gemeinrath to 
represent the Vox Populi. Just at the time now under review — after 
the General Synod of 1769 — -this principle came into fullest force.. 
The Congregation Council consisted of all adult communicants, and 
was therefore a larger and less restricted body than it had been 
before or ever was after 1775. 

The system put into operation for the whole and for each church 
village by the Synod of 1764 was understood to be only tentative in 
many respects, to be tried for five years and then subjected to 
revision. At that time strong emphasis was laid upon the Unity 
conception and some provisions were made, with the common 
interests of the whole in view, which encountered disfavor on the 
part of many who thought the local rights and interests of the several 
church villages had not been sufficiently regarded. In 1769, a 
reaction from that strong centralizing idea made itself felt, and 
this tendency affected the legislation of that year. One of the effects 
was apparent in the size and make-up of the Congregation Council. 

The measures of 1769 being found, after a trial of six years, to 
be also defective and tnisatisfactory in these respects, in going too 
far in the direction of the tendency of that year, they produced 



420 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

another reaction towards centralization. This made itself effective 
in many particulars in 1775. Central control in the Unity and com- 
munity of interests among the church settlements and their several 
choir divisions and their departments of service and industry, based 
on the principle "each for all and all for each," were established more 
firmly than at first, and became permanent. While subsequent Synods 
made alterations here and there, the system then established was 
practically the same that remained until the modern demands at 
Bethlehem and the other American church settlements, to have it 
modified, began in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and 
led eventually to the total abolition of the exclusive church-village 
plan in this country. The further principal features of organization 
established after 1769, at Bethlehem, as at all the other settlements, 
were the following: With the Elders' Conference was associated 
in deliberations on some classes of subjects a body called the 
Helpers' Conference. It was a large committee culled out of the 
whole membership of the Congregation Council which, as stated, 
then consisted of all adult communicants. For a time there was a 
larger and a smaller Helpers' Conference. Secularly viewed, they 
may be regarded as a Common and a Select Council chosen from 
the whole town meeting. 

The conspicuous use of the term "Helper" was a peculiarity of the 
revised system worked out in 1769. The minister who stood at the 
head of the pastoral corps of the village and was ex officio the Presi- 
dent of the Elders' Conference, was called the Gemeinhelfer — the local 
Helper of the General Elders' Conference of the Unity. These 
officials in the several American church settlements, with certain 
other general functionaries, made up a Provincial Helpers' Confer- 
ence which had the general oversight of all the work in this country, 
under the Unity's Elders' Conference and responsible to it; all of 
its members being appointees of that board. Its President, a bishop 
particularly appointed by the Unity's Elder's Conference to that 
position, and in some cases specially sent over from Europe for 
that purpose, was for some years spoken of as the Provincial Helper. 
Thus the U. E. C. had a General Provincial Helper, and in each 
church village a special Helper at the hea,d of the congregation. 
The Provincial Helper had these Congregation Helpers associated 
with him as a kind of cabinet. Each of them in turn had the Elders' 
Conference of the Congregation associated with him as a cabinet, 
with his Helpers' Conference selected from the membership of the 
Congregation Council as an additional advisory body. In consist- 



1762 177'- 421 

ently working out this Helper idea, the S3-nod of 1769 decreed that 
the ordained men and the appointed women in subordinate pastoral 
charge of the several choir divisions, were likewise to be called 
Helpers in their respective departments — the Choir Helpers, associ- 
ated with the Congregation Helper as the Elders' Conference of the 
village. These spiritual superintendents of the choirs had before 
been called PUeger — Fosterers or Curates. Later the term Helper 
was, in their case, dropped and they were again called PUeger. It 
was retained, however, in connection with the Head Pastor and the 
Provincial Board until the abolition of the whole system at the 
middle of the nineteenth century. When the Elders' Conference of 
a church village was completely elaborated there were associated 
with the Head Pastor, as the Helper of the U. E. C. in the Congre- 
gation, not only the Helpers or Pfteger, men and women, in charge 
of the several choir divisions, but an associate minister who was 
called simply the preacher, because the particular function of public 
preaching more largely fell to his share of duties. He was usually 
also the Inspector of the school work of the village. That very 
important functionary, the Warden of the Congregation, was also 
a member of the Elders' Conference. A special W^arden was asso- 
ciated with the Helper or PUeger of the single men, because their 
choir house and general establishment involved considerable business 
operations. He was at some periods called merely the Steward. 

Finally, in the general organization of the church village, another 
board existed, which in course of time acquired the most dominant 
importance and, in the later days of the system, came to be looked 
upon as the laymen's board over against the clerg>' of the Elders' 
-Conference. This was the Aufsehn- Collegium or Board of Super- 
vision in externals, the successor of the Riehter Collegium, as explained 
in a previous chapter. This body elected by the voting membership 
was associated with the Warden much as the Elders' Conference 
appointed by the U. E. C. and the Provincial Board was associated 
with the Head Pastor. This board was at liberty, however, to elect 
its own President. Sometimes this was the Warden who as well as 
the Choir Wardens and Stewards was, ex ofUeio, a member of it. 
Sometimes, however, care was taken to not choose the Warden as 
President, according to the circumstances, the personality of the 
Warden and the temper of the board ; for under that old system the 
presidency of those boards meant much more than to merely occupy 
the chair, listen to the discussions, put the question on motions and 
conduct the business of the meeting. The function of this board was 



422 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to supervise manufactures, trades and business generally. It was 
expected to prevent irregularities, impositions and all doings in 
business that were inconsistent with the established principles and 
discipline, or likely to give offence, sully the good name of the Breth- 
ren or injure any person ; to carefuly regulate the sale of wine and 
spirits at the inn and prevent excess or scandal in this respect ; to 
prevent the manufacture or sale of all articles that were not supposed 
to be tolerated in a Moravian village. As a board advisory to the 
Warden, it had to do, after the Congregation acquired property with 
which it could deal independently of the Warden's Department of 
the Unity, with matters of sale and purchase; investments, loans and 
deposits of money and the general care of property. Eventually its 
functions lay more clear-cut and restricted in the two classes of 
duties which, after the incorporation of the Borough in 1845 ^.nd of 
the Moravian Congregation in 185 1, were performed by the Town 
Council on the one hand and the Trustees of the Congregation on the 
other. It may be added that under the S3'stem of 1769, in accordance 
with which Bethlehem was re-organized in 1770 and ijyi, the Auf seller 
CoUeghim had to render regular reports to the General Wardens of 
the Unity, organized as a department of the Unity's Elders' Confer- 
ence, but their reports had to pass through the hands of the Elders' 
Conference of Bethlehem. This was one of the many features that 
reveal the nice adjustment of things in this compact organization. 
All of these boards worked under a code of general directions formu- 
lated by the General Synod which were the same in all of the church 
villages. The Synod of 1769 decreed that new elections to these var- 
ious conferences and boards, in so far as their personnel was elected 
by the Congregation Council, should be held in all of the villages, 
in carrying out its new system. This took place in Bethlehem in 
June, 1770. Then, little by little, the various other new regulations 
were introduced in all the details which were under the control of the 
different general boards. 

The reconstruction did not, however, consist merely in these 
changes. Other new measures, fundamental and far-reaching, fol- 
lowed in the matter of property, productive industries and general 
financial arrangements. The enormous burden of debt under which 
the Unity had been struggling since the financial crisis of 1753. and 
was bravely laboring to pay off, necessarily brought financial legisla- 
tion into prominence in its Synods, and made the handling of its 
properties in Europe and America and the management of its sources 
of revenue of very great importance. One step after another was 



1762 I77I- 423 

taken to simplify the situation and to devise successful ways and 
means to bear the heavy burden and at the same time meet current 
expenses. The main source of income had been the Zinzendorf 
properties. After Zinzendorf's death, a settlement was made with 
his heirs whereby, at a great sacrifice, in loyalty to the interests of 
the Church for which their father had been ready to surrender every- 
thing he had, they accepted $90,000 for their interest in these estates 
and released them to the Unity, which became their owner. The real 
estate at Bethlehem and elsewhere in Pennsylvania was also the 
property of the Unity. When the General Synod met in 1764, more 
than $550,000 of its debt had been extinguished, but more than 
$770,000 remained. This load pressed so heavily and the involved 
condition of finances in many places, among others at Bethlehem, 
caused such difficulties in the effort to get these places properly 
established financially, to bring clearness into matters and to secure 
for the burdened Unity every available source of income from its 
estates and release from every needless drain, that it was decided, in 
1769, to bring about a division of estates and sources of revenue be- 
tween the Unity and the Congregation. This was in a line with the 
tendency that manifested itself at the Synod of that year, and which, 
in the matter of finances, even went so far as to agitate the idea of 
dividing the debt of the Unity between the different church settle- 
ments in Europe and America and letting each one then struggle 
with its portion of it as it could. 

While six years later, when the Synod met again, this decentral- 
izing tendency, thus applied also to finances, gave way, as already 
stated, to that of community of interests more strongly enunciated 
than ever before, it meanwhile gave impetus to the plan of division 
and settlement at Bethlehem, which was of much importance at that 
time. Three men were deputed by the Unity's Elders' Conference 
to come to Pennsylvania and re-organize the finances of the Church 
at Bethlehem, as well as at Nazareth and Lititz, and carry out their 
commissions. They were the Rev. Christian Gregor, later Bishop, 
the well-known Moravian musical composer and hymn-writer, and 
the Rev. John Loretz, both members of the Unity's Elders' Confer- 
ence, and the Rev. John Christian Alexander de Schweinitz, who 
came to remain at Bethlehem as Administrator of the property of the 
Unity, of which Bishop Nathanael Seidel, as stated in a previous 
chapter, was now the nominal Proprietor; and in this capacity to act 
as an e.v officio member of the Provincial Helpers' Conference. They 
arrived at Bethlehem, November 16, 1770, and set about their task. 



424 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

A great mass of complicated details had to be gone through and 
settled with the boards at Bethlehem, with the whole body of adult 
members in council assembled and with the Provincial Board. All 
was finally cleared up and arranged satisfactorily before the end of 
May, 1771. The finances of the Unity and those of Bethlehem were 
separated and Bethlehem was placed, like the European church 
villages, on its own financial basis. A Bethlehem "Congregation 
Diacony" was instituted on a new footing. This purchased of the 
Unity, represented by the "General Diacony," to which reference 
has been made, very nearly four thousand acres of land — not exact 
figures, but round numbers are given, as in references to the Unity's 
debt — at £2 Pa. per acre, besides those buildings and industrial 
establishments of the place which were owned by the General 
Diacony. The value of the whole purchase was figured at £29,000 
Pa. This amount, about $87,000 of the debt of the Unity, was then 
assumed by Bethlehem. 

It was arranged that a "Sustentation Diacony" for the American 
branch of the Church should be established, as had been done in 
Europe; also a special "School Diacony;" both to be controlled by 
the Provincial Helpers' Conference and managed by the Adminis- 
trator. The purpose of the first was to pay the expenses of the 
Provincial Board, to provide help for ministers at needy posts, and 
especially to pension superannuated or disabled ministers and widows 
of ministers and old people who had worked for the Economy. Later 
other obligations were added. The object of the School Diacony was 
to provide resources for the education of ministers' children.'" It 
was agreed that Bethlehem would contribute to the Sustentation 
Diacony two-thirds of the profits of the industries it controlled and 
that any surplus accruing at any time, beyond the combined needs 
of the Congregation and Sustentation Diaconies, should be applied 
to the work of Church Extension, or Home Amissions in America. 

Many details were also arranged in connection with the manage- 
ment of the various industries and concerns, the finances of the 
"choir-houses" and the support of the day-schools of the village. 
Tuition fees were fixed at six pence per week for each child. It was 

'6 The term Diacony was used for many years for the different financial systems and treas- 
uries. "The Pennsylvania Sustentation Diacony," as it was long called, was what is now 
known as the Sustentation Fund of the Moravian Church, with which the former School 
Diacony was consolidated more than fifty years ago. The Sustentation Diacony had no 
endowment, and a Sustentation Fund could not be spoken of until such an endowment was 
provided by the Bethlehem and Nazareth congregations about fifty years ago. 



1/62 I77I- 425 

stated that the rate was put within the reach of all so that the 
question whether they could afford to pay should not arise. The 
trifling income from tuition was to be supplemented by an appro- 
priation made by the Congregation Diacony to provide the meagre 
salaries paid the two men who taught the boys and the one woman 
who taught the girls of the village in one of the rooms of the board- 
ing-school. There was a re-organization of this latter institution, 
as well as of Nazareth Hall, which restricted their scope more 
than previously, as a matter of financial retrenchment; because, for 
the most part, the boarding scholars from elsewhere were there on 
a basis that was not financially profitable, and this could no longer 
be afforded. All of the accounts of the previous General Diacony, 
as well as the special accounts of the choir houses, the schools and 
the various establishments were audited and closed on May 31, 1771, 
and on June i, the new books of the Unity's Administration, the 
Sustentation and School Diaconies, the Bethlehem Congregation 
Diacony, the several Choir Diaconies, and of all the concerns doing 
business were opened. Thus the new period began financially. 

In the course of these protracted settlements and arrangements 
several special new building and other enterprises were decided upon. 
The most conspicuous was the erection of a needed addition to the 
Sisters' House, to which the concurrence of the several boards 
concerned, and of the people of Bethlehem in Congregation Council 
assembled, was asked and received by the managers of the Diacony 
of that choir. This was the large eastern section of that mass of 
buildings which completed them as they now stand. It is stated 
also that a new farm was opened and a dwelling house built on it 
in the course of the year "back of the Burnside land" and occupied 
by a tenant; and that the site of Nain, with the land belonging to it, 
was constituted a separate farm and rented. Thus began the history, 
as farms, of what have so long been known as the Geissinger Farms. 

Finally a complete new code of statutes and ordinances for the 
village, after passing the approval successively of the Elders' Con- 
ference, the Board of Supervision — Aufseher Collegium — and the large 
Helpers' Conference, were adopted and signed by the entire adult 
male membership, November 21, 1771. This completed the re-organi- 
zation and fully opened the new period in the history of Bethlehem. 
Its population consisted at the close of that year of 138 married 
people, II widowers. 32 widows, 115 single men and older boys, 169 
single women and older girls, 35 boys and 60 girls under thirteen 
years of age — total 560 souls. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Into the Depths of Revolutionary Trouble. 
1772 — 1778. 

Several peaceful and prosperous years followed the re-organization 
of 1771- Under the new order, arrangements were much simplified, 
were better understood by the common people of Bethlehem and 
therefore very generally had their intelligent and cordial concur- 
rence. The new basis established in the management of industries 
and in the matter of property and finances, awakened a feeling of 
local individuahty — a kind of town spirit — that was needed for the 
best interests of the situation, at the stage which had been reached. 
People began to feel less like a camp of pilgrims amid foreign sur- 
roundings and more like a body of citizens with common local 
attachments, duties and aspirations. The influx of large colonies 
with the pilgrim feeling inculcated and sympathies clinging to that 
which had been left behind, or at least not located at Bethlehem, had 
ceased. There was also less shifting of persons than previously 
between Bethlehem and the places on the Nazareth domain. The 
general re-organization had laid the foundation for a more distinct 
local development there also, in accordance with the decision of the 
General Synod of 1769, that a regular church village on the Herrn- 
hut plan, like Lititz, Salem, N. C, and Hope, N. J., should there be 
laid out, as had been had in mind from the beginning. This village 
was to lie spread out at the base of Nazareth Hall ; not farther up 
the hill to the west, where Gnadenhoeh was to have been built, with 
the original cemetery crowning the highest point back of it, nor 
where Gnadenstadt had been laid out to the north-east. The six 
hundred acres of land surveyed for the new village of Nazareth^ 
embraced what now came to be called Old Nazareth, together with 



■ January 19, 1771, the Provincial Helpers' Conference resolved to proceed with laying 
out New Nazareth. The next day, the sites of the first buildings were staked off. March 
7 its first code of statutes and ordinances was adopted. The first dwelling was built that 
summer and the inn was finished, January, 1772. 

426 



17/2 1/78. . 427 

the Whitefield house premises, to which later generations gave their 
present name Ephrata. This was without adequate iaistorical reason, 
and it gave some excuse to persons with nebulous ideas about the 
Moravians for occasionally confusing them with the Sabbatarian, 
Mystic Tunker fraternity of Lancaster County, whose settlement bore 
that name which survives in the flourishing town of Ephrata. There- 
fore, in 1772, Nazareth was no longer an affiliate of Bethlehem in an 
indefinite stage of transition from the old General Economy relations 
to autonomy — the last vestige of the old order, the common house- 
keeping at Old Nazareth was not abolished until 1764 — but was now 
a distinct church settlement, with Gnadenthal and Christiansbrunn 
as its affiliates. 

There were, furthermore, far fewer at Bethlehem than formerly 
who engaged by turns in local duties and in missionary work. There 
was less continual itineracy among the country congregations and 
preaching-places and the Indian missions were now established at a 
greater distance, with less traveling to and fro. Thus, in all these 
respects, there had been a gradual formation of a settled citizenship 
at Bethlehem, identified with those interests which were local. The 
end of Indian complications within the Forks of the Delaware caused 
the most conspicuous feature of the primitive and unsettled condi- 
tions to disappear from the scene. Those elements of the neighbor- 
ing population which had caused Bethlehem so much tribulation on 
this account, now had to leave the Moravians in peace until some- 
thing else that did not meet their approval, besides missionary work 
among the Indians, or some new pretext for manifesting ill will 
should again give occasion for hostile agitations. They did not have 
to maintain this irksome peace and quiet long, as the sequel will 
show. On the other hand, a better understanding, a more friendly 
feeling, greater mutual respect and the recognition of more interests 
in common had issued out of the turmoil of the preceding years 
"between the Bethlehem people and the more orderly, peaceable and 
tolerant part of the population of Northampton County. There was 
more of the natural and ordinary kind of intercourse in matters of 
"business and in general neighborly relations. People who had 
stood far apart began to be accustomed to each other's ways. The 
Bethlehem population, consisting now, for the most part, of persons 
who had lived some years in the country, felt less shyness towards 
people of the surrounding region than formerly, could deal with them 
in a more unconstrained manner and were better able to recognize 



428 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

personal worth and even sincere piety where they existed under 
racial characteristics, ecclesiastical traditions and social customs so 
different from their own. People of the neighborhood who went in 
and out at Bethlehem no longer looked upon its institutions and 
customs as oddities. They also manifested less of the common dis- 
position of rough back-woodsmen, to resent what they regard as 
pretentiousness on the part of people who venture to introduce any 
refinements amid prevailing rudeness. They gradually ceased to 
regard the religion taught at Bethlehem — without knowing anything 
about it — as something subversive of Protestantism and the State, 
for the blatant, rabid pulpit-controversialists who in former years 
stirred up ignorant prejudice, were no longer such influential men 
up and down the country as they once were. 

If the political situation of the time had been a settled one, with 
peace ahead, instead of one that was bringing on a mighty struggle, 
to arouse — as one of its inevitable concomitants — such intolerant 
passion among the kind of men whose zeal was more fierce and 
riotous than heroic — for Bethlehem had ample opportunity to learn 
the difference between the high-minded, chivalrous patriot and the 
coarse, blustering zealot reveling in havoc for its own sake — the har- 
monious growing together of the missionary town and its surround- 
ings, which was arrested and retarded by the Revolution, would have 
proceeded with smooth rapidity after the local Indian problem was 
out of the way. It had even come so far that there was discussion, 
on common ground, of proposed public improvements, in which the 
people of Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown and the surrounding neigh- 
borhoods were jointly interested, with diverse opinions, as on all 
public matters. The Government of Pennsylvania had commenced 
to move in the direction of making inland waterways available for 
the development of traffic. Thus, on March 9, 1771, a bill had been 
made law by the signature of the Governor and the seal of the Prov- 
ince, entitled "an act declaring the rivers Delaware and Lehigh and 
a part of the Neshaminy Creek as far as Barnsley's Ford, and of the 
stream called the Lechawaxin, as far up as the falls thereof, common 
highways, and for improving the navigation in the said rivers." 
Projects for realizing results in the line of this move, so far as the 
Lehigh was concerned, were agitated along its course as matters 
which concerned Bethlehem and other places alike. It is true that 
the chief attention to this subject was awakened during that summer 
by events which were not peaceful, when the sending of men with 



1772 1778- 429 

provisions from Easton up to Wyoming, to relieve the garrison in 
the "Block House" during the first outbreak of violence in the 
boundary disputes between the Proprietaries and the New England 
colonists, gave special cause to discuss the matter. Then, when the 
boat-building facilities at Bethlehem were called into requisition to 
further such transportation, this remote connection between the 
Moravian town and a scene of strife was turned to account by some 
veteran fabricators of slanderous fiction, to implicate the Moravians 
even in the contention of the New Englanders to the detriment of 
Pennsylvania. It may be added in this connection, that when more 
serious trouble in that boundary dispute was at its height, in 1775, 
the favorite old story of powder and lead shipped from Bethlehem 
to aid the enemy was carried about the country by men who pro- 
fessed to know whereof they spoke, for did they not live along the 
way between, where they could watch the Moravians ? Those powder 
and lead stories, as ridiculous as they were rascally, had been found 
by their inventors formerly to take so well among the credulous and 
unreasoning, that they brought them out anew with no fear that now 
they would fall flat. That before, it was to the French army and then 
to savage Indians and now to British subjects of another colony 
that this imaginary ammunition from Bethlehem was thus secretly 
supplied, did not disturb the faith of some who heard the tale. It 
even caused dignified official inquiry, and it does not seem to have 
occurred to any one to raise the question where the Moravians could 
possibly have procured all those quantities of powder and lead which 
certain men in the Irish Settlement saw them conveying through the 
country for several decades to so many different kinds of enemies 
of the State, in one war after another. 

As to improvements in the Lehigh River, those which ruined the 
fishing were at that time yet things of the distant future. If the 
modern disposition to be incredulous about "fish stories" had then 
existed, it would have taxed the courage of the Bethlehem chronicler 
to record that a catch of shad in the Lehigh at Bethlehem, in the 
spring of 1772, amounted to more than five thousand. These large 
fishing exploits were among the things of interest that attracted the 
attention of the numerous visitors, and helped to supply the tables of 
the Sun Inn where many notables of the time dined on the fat of the 
land. Doubtless many of these, like "summer guests" of subsequent 
years, who found Bethlehem such an attractive point for rural jaunts, 
would have preferred to see all "improvements" suppressed perpet- 



430 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ually, which would, in any way, interfere with either fishing or 
romantic scenery along the charming Lehigh. As a rule they had 
more regard for enjoyment at the place than for the prosperity of 
business enterprises with only utihtarian designs in connection with 
its waters and its banks. There was only one sentiment among 
visitors of that time in regard to the general appearance of Bethlehem 
and its environs, so far as their testimony has been preserved in 
diaries and correspondence. Remarks about the people of the place, 
its institutions and social arrangements and even its celebrated inn, 
so greatly superior to any then to be found about the country, vary 
somewhat. In some cases this difference is evidently due to the 
variety of temperament and disposition possessed by the guests, 
although, of course, things were not seen by all under the most 
favorable circumstances, the meals at the inn were naturally not 
always up to its best standard, and not every one who visited the 
place happened to encounter the most agreeable and intelligent of its 
people. One visitor, probably a sHghtly captious bachelor with little 
angularities and a contracted city horizon, whose observations have 
been published,^ refers to "Jost's" — Jost Jansen, inn-keeper at the 
Sun — as the only inn at the place, as if many were to be expected in 
a village of that size in those days, and his first comment was that the 
dinner was "bad." The supper, however, was "pretty good," the wine 
and the punch were also good, but the beer was "indifferent." 

The evening service which he attended was "solemn and devout." 
Captain Garrison and his wife, who escorted the company about, 
"behaved with a great deal of politeness and were very obliging." 
On August 17, the day of the festival of the little girls, he saw the 
"female children at dinner" (lovefeast) and remarked the neatness 
and great decorum. He visited Christiansbrunn and Nazareth, and 
found Nazareth Hall "a neat, plain building" with "some tolerable 
paintings" in it, but did not consider knitting "fit work for boys." 
At Easton the dinner was indififerent, the wine not good, the supper 
"pretty so so," and "a. neat court house the only thing worth 
remarking." Hunting and fishing excursions about Bethlehem were 
indulged in. At the Sun Inn there was a considerable company of 
people, among them several "sprightly agreeable Quaker girls" who 
evidently found him a good subject to be teased, for he mentions 
some tricks served him by "the merry little rogues." He finds the 

2 Anonymous journal of a tour in August, 1773, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and 

Biography^ Vol. X. 




3ETHLEHEM 
1767 
1734 



1772 1778. 431 

Moravians "an industrious, inoffensive people, much addicted to 
particular forms and in some respects resembling the Roman Cath- 
olics." Animadverting on the domestic and social arrangements — 
the single men and women living in separate houses and having 
nothing to do with each other — he ventures the opinion that such a 
plan is not in accordance with the "design of the wise Disposer of 
all things." When he and his company left for Reading, they stopped 
on the way at Allentown, "at the Sign of the King of Prussia," where 
he encountered such bad odors that he could not stay in the house. 
He says "Allentown is a pretty situation but seems to be a poor 
place." 

During the summer of 1772, the last considerable building erected 
in Bethlehem for the space of nearly twenty years was commenced. 
This was the large eastern section of the Sisters' House which it had 
been decided the previous year to build, but which was not completed 
and formally occupied until October, 1773. The corner-stone was 
laid on May 4, 1772, the covenant day of the Single Sisters. Christian 
Gregor who with his fellow-deputy of the Unity's Elder's Conference, 
John Loretz, was yet in Bethlehem, officiated on this occasion. 

Having finished their labors, they left on May 6, to return to 
Europe. John Christian A. de Schweinitz who came with them had 
entered upon his duties at Bethlehem as Administrator of the estates 
of the Unity, and as a member of the Provincial Helpers' Confer- 
ence. He was also chosen Vice-President of the village Board of 
Oversight — Aufselier Collcgiiiiii — of which John Ettwein was Presi- 
dent. Dettmers, the Warden, was transferred to Nazareth to assume 
the difficult duties of that office in connection with the organization 
of the new village. His place as Warden at Bethlehem was taken 
by Jeremiah Dencke who filled this office during the Revolution. 
Another new official of importance who appeared upon the scene 
after New Year, 1773, was John Herman Bonn, the Warden of the 
Brethren's House during the Revolution. He was the successor of 
the eminently capable John Arbo who died, December 11, 1772. 
Some time before that, the most historic figure had disappeared from 
among the old men of Bethlehem. This was Bishop David Nitsch- 
mann, the first bishop of the Renewed Church, one of its first two 
missionaries to the heathen, it first bishop in America and the 
founder of Bethlehem. His associations in the service of the Church 
had ranged from the presence of kings and queens, the palaces of 
dukes and lords and the council chambers of great ministers of state. 



432 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to the backwoods cabin, the Indian's wigwam, the hut of the negro 
slave and the companionship in toil of rustic laborers, clearing the 
forest and tilling the soil, and of mechanics working in the carpenters' 
shop or building houses at the new settlements of the Church. His 
official labors had extended over various parts of Germany, Denmark, 
Sweden and Norway, into Livonia, through England and Wales, 
besides the Danish West Indies and the short-lived settlement at 
Savannah, Georgia ; to all the fields of Moravian activity in Pennsyl- 
vania and New York including the various Indian missions prior to 
1756, and the settlement in North Carolina; and his travels embraced 
at least fifty sea-voyages. After 1761, when he returned finally to 
Bethlehem from Lititz, he had been living in retirement, in the utmost 
simplicity and plainness, and out of protracted sufferings, was gath- 
ered to his fathers on October 8, 1772. Early in 1773, another 
important man who had rendered very great service at Bethlehem, 
especially during the Indian troubles, departed this life. This was 
Justice Timothy Horsfield, who died, March 9 of that year. His 
successor in office, the third magistrate appointed at Bethlehem and 
the last under the Colonial Government, was John Okely, who 
received his commission, March 21, 1774. He filled this trouble- 
some position until the change of government during the Revolu- 
tion. The Horsfield house, treated of fully in a previous chapter, 
was purchased by Henry Van Vleck, merchant, of New York, who 
retired to Bethlehem and, in February, 1774, took up his residence 
in that building. 

The cemetery near by, where the remains of these men were laid 
to rest was, with each passing year, becoming a place of more rev- 
erent and tender interest to the people of Bethlehem. In 1773 special 
attention was bestowed upon it. The record which tells of the neat 
new fence which was built around it that year, and of its enlarge- 
ment that had become necessary, states that at that time the bodies 
of four hundred and eleven persons reposed there. The death-rate 
at Bethlehem was not as high at this period as it had prevailingly been 
during the first two decades. Less hardship and exposure had to 
be endured and the enlargement of dwelling accommodations, with 
other changes in the mode of living, were conducive to better health. 
Among occasional epidemics, small-pox among the children had 
again to be contended with in 1773. In connection with this new 
spread of the scourge, inoculation was first introduced in Bethlehem 
by Dr. John Matthew Otto. He proposed in an official conference 



1772 I77S. 433 

on September 13, that the process be tried. It being a new thing at 
the place, it was deemed better not to proceed with the experiment 
without the concurrence of the wliole body of parents. This was 
given at a consuhation with them two days later, and on September 
18, it was first tried on a little son of William Boehler and his wife, 
who were the first who expressed their willingness to have the experi- 
ment made in their family. The disease was soon gotten under con- 
trol and such a disastrous spread of it as had occurred on several 
previous occasions was prevented. 

The year 1774 was a flourishing one in the numerous industries 
of Bethlehem, as well as a year of good crops and of general good 
health, so that the records, in summing up its local events and experi- 
ences, express acknowledgement of particular blessings to call forth 
the gratitude of the people. It was also a year notable for unusually 
man}' visits by persons of distinction from many and distant points. 
Among them was Baron von Repsdorf, the Danish Governor General 
of St. Croix, a warm friend of the Moravian missionaries on that 
Island. John Dickinson, the eminent jurist, and "the Swedish Herr 
Probst" are referred to among persons from Philadelphia who had 
not before been visitors to Bethlehem. In May the Sun Inn, once 
more before the Revolution, entertained a Proprietary Governor of 
Pennsylvania, who was destined also to be the last such Governor. 
It was John Penn, now serving his second term as Governor — or, 
strictly speaking. Lieutenant Governor — having been succeeded in 
1771 by his brother Richard, who was also in Bethlehem this same 
month, and, according to current statements, was a more popular 
man than John, who resumed the office in September, 1773, when 
the complications that brought on the great conflict were rapidly 
becoming acute. 

A little more than a month after their visit, the diary of Bethleheni 
refers to a conference with William Edmonds, the former Moravian 
Assemblyman from Northampton County, at this time again serving 
in that capacity, who, with John Okely, the other Moravian delegate, 
expected to attend the convention called for Juty 15. The new peril 
threatening the Indian mission which, as stated in the preceding 
chapter, had been removed in 1772 from Wyalusing in the 
Wyoming Valley, to "the Ohio country," was the principal sub- 
ject of this particular conference with Edmonds; for the spirit 
which had animated the attempts against Nain and Wechquetank 
was relentlessly pursuing the work of the gospel into the western 



434 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

wilds, where it was hoped it might be carried on in peace, at least 
for a while. At the same time, the precarious condition of affairs 
which caused that famous convention, called independently of the 
Governor, was referred to, and the advantage that was being taken 
of the issues on which public opinion was so much divided, by inimi- 
cal parties in the county to embarrass the people of Bethlehem in 
the position they were disposed to assume, led to a meeting of the 
smaller, or Select Council of the place, on July 7, to consider what 
course it would be best to pursue. The terms Whigs and Tories, 
in use in England, applied respectively to those who opposed and 
those who supported the position of Parliament, were beginning to 
be made use of in Pennsylvania also, and to be carried into the 
interior regions, with meaning broadened to embrace, respectively, 
all who were either for or against violent rupture and revolution. 
Thus, before long, the word Tory came to include, in the language 
of the impetuous, not only royalists, but also patriots who urged 
further struggle against oppression by constitutional methods in 
preference to precipitating war. Right in Pennsylvania this conser- 
vative element of the first Congress of Deputies from the colonies, 
held in September, 1774, in response to the proposition of the July 
Convention, and of subsequent meetings, was strongest, for here 
there were, among the leaders, more men than elsewhere of English 
legal training and conservative habits of thought who deprecated a 
hasty breach. They had back of them in the Province a large mass 
of people who, from various standpoints, were loath to see an open 
rupture, so long as it seemed possible to reach a peaceable solution 
of the momentous questions, and who shrank from the thought of 
rushing into the hazards of violent resistance. Most conspicuous 
and numerous among these conservative masses of Pennsylvania 
were, of course, the Quakers. With them were also the adherents 
of those several German sects which were opposed to war on general 
principles and were disposed also to accept the powers that be as 
ordained of God, and even if these powers subjected them to oppres- 
sion and tyranny, to make the best of it ; having no mind for the idea 
that the people might take the law and the government into their 
own hands and thus endeavor to right their wrongs. As to the 
Moravians, their position was not identical with that of the Quakers 
nor with that of the Mennonites, the Schwenkfelders, and other such 
German bodies. Still less were they to be placed in a mass on the 
same footing with those royalists who either openly or secretly oper- 



1772 1778- 435 

ated on the side of the King and Parliament against the aims of the 
colonists. After excitement ran so high that the term Tory became 
an offensive one, equivalent in the common mind to traitor, and was 
applied indiscriminately to all who did not see their way clear to 
favor revolution at the time when this step was believed by others 
to be inevitable, and to all who held non-combatant principles, no 
matter how innocent they might have been of any conspiracy or 
even sympathy with efforts inimical to the rights of the colonists, the 
Moravians, of course, came under the odium, in the minds of the hot- 
headed and precipitate, of being, in a body, Tories. That class of 
men in Northampton County who cherished the old prejudice and 
grudge against them belonged to the sort who were ever ready to 
rush into violent collision on any kind of a question and now eagerly 
seized the new opportunity to proclaim them enemies of the patriot 
cause and in secret conspiracy with the English Government, just 
as they had before proclaimed them as enemies of this Government 
in conspiracy against it with the French. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, that so soon as the first authorized move was made in the 
county to associate, arm and drill for the coming conflict, every 
available measure was advocated by such to coerce them into partici- 
pation. That this, on the part of some petty officials, was not so 
much the vehement impulse of patriotism as a mere desire to harass 
the Moravians, soon became so clear that it did not admit of a doubt. 
Reasonable and temperate men among those in control of militia 
organization who were disposed to show such regard for their posi- 
tion and principles as the circumstances permitted, found it very diffi- 
cult to restrain this tendency. It is not surprising, either, that when 
the first bodies of troops from distant places began to march through 
Bethlehem, many of these men, having no personal acquaintance 
with the place, its people and their traditions, and receiving their 
information about them entirely from bitterly prejudiced persons, 
should have been possessed of the idea that Bethlehem was a place 
full of dangerous Tories that deserved no kind of regard. That 
under these circumstances, amid the wild excitement, many of these 
men being undisciplined and impetuous, the Moravian town was, 
on the whole, treated with so much respectful consideration, is a mat- 
ter of astonishment. More than one such body of recruits approached 
the neighborhood with loud threats, but were restrained from turbu- 
lent demonstrations by the mere force of the impression which the 
appearance and general atmosphere of the place made upon them. 



43^ A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The common modern supposition that the Moravians at Bethle- 
hem, Nazareth and elsewhere all stood together as a unit in their 
views and sentiments either at the beginning of the Revolution or 
later, is quite erroneous. There were decided differences of opinion 
among them on the main question of seeking independence, on the 
various involved questions and on the successive measures adopted 
by the Congress of the colonies, just as there were among people else- 
where. They were, as a rule, men of too much intelligence to all hold 
certain ideas or prejudices as one man, on such questions. There 
were, moreover, not only Germans and Englishmen and natives of 
other European countries, but also native-born Americans among 
them, and there was to some extent a corresponding variety of sym- 
pathy, sentiment and traditional habit of thought on political subjects. 
These subjects did not enter into the platform on which they had 
been culled out and brought together into a fraternity. Therefore, 
unanimity in this respect did not exist either by virtue of selectiori 
or of indoctrination. That there were Tories among them, in opinion 
and sentiment, just as there were in other communities, cannot be 
denied. That there were those who sympathized with the struggle 
of the colonies is certain. There were also, as in every other commu- 
nity, many who at first did not appreciate the righteousness of the 
struggle ; many who failed to rightly apprehend the issue ; many who 
had no conception of its magnitude and did not dream of its far- 
reaching results, who later saw into things better and whose views 
underwent a complete change. Not every man elsewhere who at the 
first signal was ready to shoulder his gun and march, clearly dis- 
cerned the real problems of the hour, and as few of the boisterous 
zealots who thought the Moravians should all be compelled to join 
the militia as of these Moravians looked out through the mazy future 
with the eye of a seer and foresaw all that a few years later became 
so plain. 

There was also wide difference of opinion among the people of 
Bethlehem on the question of adhering to the old principle in the 
matter of bearing arms in active warfare and engaging in military 
drill. Some made this an essential as much as did the Quakers. 
Others merely took the ground of consistency with the original mis- 
sionary purpose of the settlement, in pursuance of which the Church 
had sought and obtained exemption from such duty for its member- 
ship, with the understanding that they would do their duty for the 
maintenance and protection of the State by paying such sums as 



1772 1778. 437 

might be required of them in lieu of bodily service of that kind. 
Such were more ready to recognize emergencies in which it might 
become their duty to also shoulder a musket. Yet others, especially 
among the younger men, if they had been left to act individually, 
would have followed the call to arms — some because they believed 
this to be a patriotic duty, some to escape the odium and petty per- 
secution to which they were subjected, some also because their 
scruples on this point were not as strong as their objection to pac- 
ing the exorbitant fines imposed upon them, one time after the other, 
when this process had been gotten into systematic operation in the 
county.^ When it was finally concluded to all stand together in this 
matter, to all decline to engage in active military service and all pay 
the fines, however unreasonable the amounts demanded, and all help 
each other to bear the burden, this conclusion simply meant that 

3 Bishop Nathanael Seidel, in May, wrote a letter to Dr. Franklin, congratulating him on 
his safe return from England, and setting forth the straits they were in at Bethlehem in con- 
nection with military drill. In reply he received the following letter from Franklin : 

Philada. June 2nd 1775. 
Reverend cS: Dear Sir, 

I am much obliged by your kind congratulations on my Return ; and I rejoice to hear 
that the Brethren are well and prosper. I am persuaded that the Congress will give no 
encouragement to any to molest your people on account of their Religious Principles; and 
tho' much is not in my Power, I shall on every Occasion exert myself to discountenance 
such infamous Practices. Permit me however to give a little hint in point of Prudence. I 
remember that you put yourselves in a good Posture of Defence at the Beginning of the last 
War when I was in Bethlehem ; and £ then understood from my very much Respected 
Friend Bp. Spangenberg, that there were those among the Brethren who did not hold it unlaw- 
ful to arm in defensive Warfare. If there be still any such among your young Men. perhaps 
it would not be amiss to permit them to learn the Military Discipline among their Neighbors, 
as this might conciliate those who at present express some resentment ; and having Arms in 
Readiness for all who may be able and willing to use them, will be a general Means of 
Protection against enemies of all kinds. But a Declaration of your Society, that tho' they 
cannot in conscience compell their young Men to learn the Use of Arms, yet they do not 
restrain such as are disposed, will operate in the Minds of People very greatly in your 
Favour. 

Excuse my Presumption in offering Advice, which indeed may be of little Value, but 
proceeds from a Heart filled with Affection and Respect for a Society I have long highly 
esteemed, and among whom I have many valuable Friends. 
I am with great Regard 

& Veneration, 

Rev'd Sir, 

Your most obedient 

humble servant, 

B. FRANKLIN. 



43 S A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

whatever the personal opinions and sentiments of one and another 
might be, all would cling together consistently on the ground form- 
erly taken. Those who had no such scruples engaged to stand by 
those who had, and, as for differing views on the great struggle, 
these did not then assert themselves to the extent of causing an open 
breach in the bond of brotherhood which held them together. There 
can be no doubt that the resolution to thus make common cause 
and stand together was, under Divine Providence, what saved Beth- 
lehem through all the critical ordeals that came ; for there were times 
when, if it had been a house divided against itself, it would not have 
stood. The higher and better class of minds among both the civil 
and military authorities became convinced that no danger to the 
patriot cause was to be feared from the Moravians. In the dire dis- 
tress of the most critical times the resources derived from the place 
were no mean consideration, and were perhaps of more real value 
than the full quota of armed men from Bethlehem would have been. 
The men who insisted that the Moravians should be compelled to 
do military dut)' were not those upon whom the responsibility for 
finding ways and means rested, and they were not inclined, therefore, 
to appreciate the value of what was derived from them, as from other 
non-combatants and "Tories," in other ways.* Even a little act like 
the contribution of a quantity of linen rags by the women of Beth- 
lehem for dressing the wounds of soldiers was considered deserving 
of formal record and thanks, as early as May i, 1776, by the Com- 
mittee of Safety at Philadelphia. When, furthermore, the value of 
Bethlehem as a place of refuge for so many sick and wounded of the 
patriot army, and the readiness of its people to do what they could 
for the sufferers in the great extremity became clear, and even the 
Continental Congress found a retreat there and discovered it to be 
almost the only spot in reach that was not utterly demoralized, and 
visions came to Congressmen and Generals of further possible use to 
which the fine place, with its commodious buildings, its mills and work- 
shops and its sober, steady-going people running them might be put 
if preserved intact, the highest authorities of the new-born Nation 
became its champions and protectors against the riotous fanatics 
who would have found satisfaction in the mere spectacle of its 
destruction, even if no good whatever, but rather harm to the 
Nation's cause, had been the result. 



4 Eminent authority of the time (Dr. Rush) has been cited in support of the estimate that 
"three-fourths of the taxes by which the war was supported in Pennsylvania were paid by 
non-combatants or Tories." Pa. Mag., XV, p. 16. 



1772 I77S- 439 

In further pursuing these preliminary remarks on the attitude of 
the Moravians and the position of Bethlehem during the Revolution, 
it may be added that the differences of opinion which prevailed 
among the people, the same as at all other places, did not run with 
any particular differences of class or station. Some who have writ- 
ten on the subject have represented that the clergy, as a class, were 
Tories and held such of the people who took that side by personal 
influence or under the threat of expulsion.^ Some of the clergy were 
decidedly opposed to the Revolution in the beginning, but adopted 
quite different views later. The most striking instance is that of 
John Ettwein, who became the most conspicuous and important man 
in Bethlehem long before he was made a bishop, was generally the 
representative of the place and of the Moravian Church in dealings 
with the civil and military authorities during the war, was more 
widely known among public men than any other Moravian and, not- 
withstanding his outspoken disapproval of revolutionary steps before 
he was politically converted, commanded the general respect and 
confidence of high officials by his stalwart honesty, dauntless courage 
and unassuming simplicity of deportment. Among the Moravian 
ministers generally, the most decided Tory of whose utterances the 
records of the time preserve specimens,, was the Rev. Gustavus 
Shewkirk, pastor of the New York Church and later a missionary 
bishop in the West Indies, whose diary is probably one of the most 
complete chronicles of conditions and events in that city during the 
period it covers, to be found in any one source. Other ministers at 
Bethlehem and elsewhere, while preserving their characteristic quiet 
caution in reference to public questions, and endeavoring to hold the 
people, so far as possible, to the old position of orderly subjection 
to the authorities of the time and non-participation in political agita- 
tions, and then, when war actually came, to consistency with the 
avowed principles of the Church in the matter of bearing arms, by 
no means spoke against the struggle undertaken by the colonies. 
Some were disposed to recognize the hand of God stretched forth in 
the clouds to overrule and direct events for the higher good of the 
country, and to believe, from the beginning, that He was on the 
side of those who were struggling against oppression. As a rule 

5 So Matthew S. Henry in his History of the Lehigh Valley. Mr. Henry could not have 
found any contemporaneous documentary evidence in support of this version which reflects 
sentiments towards tlie Moravian clergy, as a class, which were not uncommon among some, 
at the time when his history was written, and which the author seems to have shared, as 
appears in other parts of his work. 



440 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

they considered it incumbent upon tliem, as representatives of a 
Churcli which formed one Unity compactly bound together, with its 
congregations and missions in many places under British dominion, 
and enjoying peculiar guaranteed privileges under that govern- 
ment, not, in any hour of revolt in one of these countries, when 
the issue was very uncertain, to suddenly renounce that allegiance to 
it which their brethren in other lands faithfully maintained. It was 
not possible for them to view the situation as men viewed it who did 
not consider, and were not supposed to consider, any kind of con- 
nections or obligations outside of those which presented themselves 
to their minds as citizens of their respective colonies. This, their 
peculiar position, brought on the most serious tribulation of all that 
fell to the lot of the Moravians, when the ordeal of the several test 
acts came to be applied. Men found it hard to understand the refusal 
of so many of them to "take the test," coming after their insistence 
upon their scruples against bearing arms, to mean anything else 
than a compact in Toryism, pure and simple. 

In the first stage of the conflict there were some among the busi- 
ness men of Bethlehem who gave unguarded expression to adverse 
sentiments and opinions which were remembered against them. 
Sometimes the unfortunate remark of one man, heard at the tavern, 
shop or mill, was carried about the country as the talk of all the 
Moravians. Few of them, however, were such rabid and indiscreet 
Tories as John Francis Oberlin, the store-keeper, a valuable but 
crochety and often troublesome man, with whom the authorities of 
the place more than once came into unpleasant conflict about various 
matters, and who is credited with saying tliat he had rope enough 
in his store to hang the entire Congress. A speech Hke that repeated 
about the neighborhood could do not a little harm, for much more 
attention was paid to it, as coming from a Moravian, than was given 
to similar and even harsher utterances by hundreds of other men. 
When the first agitation in the direction of raising a company of 
troops in Northampton County commenced, soon after the news of 
the battle of Lexington, in April, 1775, the Brethren appealed to the 
exemption from bearing arms granted them by the act of Parliament 
in 1749. Matters had not yet progressed far enough for them to 
realize that this would be treated with contempt and could not be 
expected to avail them in any wise under circumstances of revolt 
against that Government. It soon became clear to them, however, 
that this was of no use and that they had to meet the question on a 



1772 1778- 441 

new basis on which there was as yet no autlioritative declaration or 
provision to meet tiieir case. It is stated that on May 22, a meeting 
of the County Committee was held at Easton, at which it was vehem- 
ently insisted upon that they must either turn out and drill or appease 
the people by a public declaration of their principles. 

A week later a deputation waited upon Justice Jacob Arndt with 
the statement, to be made a matter of official record, that while they 
desired the good of the country and had no intention to place them- 
selves in opposition to the course of events, they claimed the liberty 
given them in all countries of exemption from military service, but 
would willingl)' bear their part of the public burden otherwise. On 
June 16, a declaration of principles, such as had been demanded, was 
adopted by a committee of the Common Council of the village, signed 
in behalf of that body and put in the hands of John Okely to be sub- 
mitted to the County Committee. This Committee resolved, on 
June 22, that, while they did not propose to force any one to drill, 
those who had scruples about it must nevertheless appear at the 
drill-ground or each time pay a fine in cash. An act of Assembly, 
providing for fines in lieu of militaiy duty, had, meanwhile, been 
passed, and therefore those members of the Committee who had 
favored coercion were, in so far, thwarted, and more than that reso- 
lution set forth could not be demanded. Thus the first perplexity 
was met and the ground established on which the matter of militia 
duty was adjusted, if all should conclude to regularly pay the fines 
rather than drill. 

The excitement of the people in the neighborhood was intensified 
by the sight of numerous troops marching through towards Boston, 
during July and August, 1775. With few exceptions they touched 
Bethlehem, for it lay right in the line of march, on the highway of 
travel from the lower parts of Pennsylvania and from regions to the 
south of this Province up into New York. The first such company, one 
from York, Pa., came on July 8. Three companies of mounted rifle- 
men arrived on the 21st and halted several hours. Several of their 
officers remained over night and attended the evening service. On 
the 24th came two more such companies. The diarist of Bethlehem 
notes that one of the privates was expelled in disgrace for gross mis- 
behavior. In the evening a company arrived from Virginia, in com- 
mand of Captain Morgan. They remained over night and, by 
request, Ettwein preached a sermon to them in the evening. The 
chronicle states that they were so quiet and orderly that it was 



442 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

hardly perceptible that there were soldiers at Bethlehem. The next 
day, soon after they left, a company arrived from Maryland under 
Captain Thomas Price, a cousin — says the diarist — of Mary Tiersch, 
wife of the Rev. Paul Tiersch, a former Assistant Principal of Naza- 
reth Hall and, in 1771, the first minister at Salem, North Carolina. 
They also attended service in a bod}' in the evening and listened to 
an English sermon. On the 28th, another company of mounted men 
arrived from Virginia and proceeded on their way, after a rest of 
several hours. An August 10, a body of riflemen passed through, 
followed, on the 13th, by a company from Bedford County, 
all bound for the center of disturbance, about Boston. Then there 
was a lull in these first manifestations of incipient war, breaking in 
upon the peace of Bethlehem, until December i, when several of the 
British officers captured by General Montgomery's little army at St. 
Johns, Canada, arrived on their way to Philadelphia. They were fol- 
lowed on the 5th by two hundred soldiers of their command. These 
prisoners of war were quartered partly at the Sun and Crown Inns 
and partly in the large stone house of many names and uses, on 
Main Street — site of the Publication Office — which has been fre- 
quently referred to, spoken of at this time as "the former Institute." 
The next day another body of prisoners followed, so that about four 
hundred in all passed through. They only remained several days, 
and the record states that there was no cause for complaint about 
their conduct while they sojourned at Bethlehem. They were fol- 
lowed, January 30, 1776, by many of their wives and children, under 
guard, in four sleighs. Their distress awakened much compassion, 
as the cold was severe and their clothing insufficient. Extra cloth- 
ing, blankets and other necessities were furnished them for the 
remaining journey. The next day came upwards of twenty wagons, 
loaded with prisoners and luggage. They proceeded on their way, 
the day following, after John Okely, as Justice, had, in accordance 
with official instructions, pressed every available wagon into service 
for their further transportation. It seemed as if there would be no 
end to this caravan, for on February 3, upwards of fifty more passed 
through, followed the next day by several officers. Again on Feb- 
ruary 14, another company of prisoners, this time mostly French 
troops, arrived, and the next day went on to their quarters at Bristol. 
These men attended a service held for the children and purchased a 
considerable lot of needle-work and other goods in the Sisters 
House. After that there were no further visits of a militar\- char- 



-17/8. 



443 










444 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

acter until in July, excepting the passing through to New York of 
one company of riflemen, the first week in April. The conditions 
that existed at Bethlehem led the authorities of the place to increase 
the dwelling accommodations in every possible way. Some apart- 
ments were fitted up temporarily in various buildings, and several 
structures were converted from their former uses into permanent 
dwelling-houses. One of these was "the old stone stable on the 
former farm" of Bethlehem. This was the stone cottage yet stand- 
ing near the site of the first house, on Rubel's Alley, of various sub- 
sequent associations. It seemed as if this move to increase dwell- 
ings had resulted from a premonition that ere long emergencies 
would come upon Bethlehem when every habitable spot in the place 
would be called into requisition. Among the incidents of those months 
were two deaths that have interesting associations in different 
ways. The first, on March 7, 1776, was that of Christian Froehlich, 
the last of the Bethlehem pioneers living at the place. He had been 
engaged in his former occupation, as a sugar refiner, in New York, 
for twent3^-four years, and had, shortly before his decease, come to 
Bethlehem to spend his declining days. The other, which caused 
much sorrow, was that, on April 19, of the Rev. Amadeus Paulinus 
Thrane, the gifted, eloquent and greatly beloved preacher and asso- 
ciate pastor (Ordinarius) since 1761. This position was now assumed 
by Ettwein, in connection with his other duties as assistant to Bishop 
Seidel, President of the Provincial Helpers' Conference. The latter 
also filled the position of Head Pastor {Gcmeinhelfer) at Bethlehem, 
assisted by the Rev. Paul Muenster as subordinate pastor of the 
married portion of the Congregation. The Rev. Andrew Busse, an 
unmarried man, and chaplain of the Brethren's House, had the partic- 
ular pastoral charge of the single men, assisted by John Frederick 
Peter and Immanuel Nitschmann. Ettwein, at the same time, was 
yet filling another important office, as President of the village Board 
of Supervision in externals, assisted by de Schweinitz the Adminis- 
trator of the American property of the Unity or Church General. 
These, with the Rev. Jeremiah Dencke, the Warden of the Congre- 
gation, and the Rev. John Herman Bonn, the Warden of the 
Brethren's House, as previously stated, together with the Eldresses 
and Deaconesses of the Sisters' House and the Widows' House, made 
up, principally, the official personnel of Bethlehem in that historic 
year. 

The course of local affairs, on to ^lay, 1776, suffered no disturb- 
ance traceable to the effects of the Revolution that had commenced, 



1772 1778. 445 

excepting some unsettling of prices whicli the doughty store-keeper, 
Oberhn, was taking advantage of, contrar}' to regulations, to make 
more profit than the village fathers thought was proper. A "painful 
deliberation" on the subject took place in the Elders" Conference in 
May. It was clear that he was overcharging the people of the place, 
as well as outside customers who would blame the village authorities. 
It was decided that Bishop Seidel should speak to Oberlin about this. 
The store-keeper had trouble enough later, on account of the scarcity 
of many commodities and the enormous prices that had to be paid, but 
at this time the advance was only speculative, as yet, and the business 
principles which then prevailed in Bethlehem did not permit specu- 
lation on prospective stringency, even in dealing with customers who 
came from the country to hear Tory talk and perhaps to get a glimpse 
of the alleged British powder and lead stored in the cellar of the 
village store, where the imaginary French ammunition was supposed 
to have been kept formerly. Many people from near and distant 
places were in Bethlehem during those weeks and the store, as well 
as the inn, undoubtedly did a thriving business. 

On May 6, John Penn again came to Bethlehem from Allentown, 
where he had probably been in consultation with Andrew Allen, and 
remained until the next day. He was perhaps contemplating the 
prospect of soon having to write Ichabod under the Penns' Arms that 
crowned the back of the Governor's chair. In January of the pre- 
vious year, the Pennsj'lvania Convention had approved the pro- 
ceedings of the first Continental Congress held in September before 
that. This had proven the entering wedge towards shattering the 
old Pennsylvania government. At the meeting of the decrepit 
Assembly in June, following that Convention, when the "Committee 
of Safety" was appointed, the temper of the subsequent "Associators" 
made itself felt in a fashion that boded little good for the old pro- 
vincial machinery; for this Committee, which represented the senti- 
ment at variance with the conservative party that was now the only 
strength of the old government, took matters largely into its own 
hands for the next twelve months, and, in May, 1776, the time now 
under review, the further existence even of the Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania was rendered precarious by the resolution of the Congress, 
recommending to the colonies to institute a government adapted to 
the needs of the hour. This action was communicated by Assembly- 
man Edmonds, in a letter to Bethlehem, and on May 28, a meeting 
of voting citizens was held to consider what, if anvthing, thev. as 



446 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

part of the people of one of the counties, should do in view of the 
"repudiation of the Assembly" by those in control, and the proposi- 
tion "to abolish the existing government" of the Province. It was 
observed at the meeting that everything was then turning on the 
question of declaring independence of England or not, and that those 
in Pennsylvania who were in favor of so doing would needs have the 
old Assembly out of the way. It was finally decided not to take 
any action in a distinct capacity as Moravians, but unite with other 
conservative inhabitants of the county 'in signing a proposed petition 
to retain the old government, provided such petition contained 
nothing contrary to their conscientious scruples. Nothing came of 
the petition. The futile effort was made by those who tried to 
preserve what they believed to be the proper legal method of pro- 
cedure, to have the proposed Convention called through the old 
Assembly, as then yet constituted. This action, though initiated, was 
not consummated. The Committee of Correspondence which had 
called the conference of the County Committees in Carpenters' Hall, 
in July, 1774, summoned them to another such conference which met 
on June 18, 1776, and took the initial steps to bring about a Con- 
vention for the formation of a new Provincial Government. The 
Assembly subsequently had several sessions, and a last meeting, 
feebly protested and then died. 

The current of events was irresistible. Before this Pennsylvania 
Convention assembled, the supreme hour had come when the new 
Continental Congress, convened on May 10, took the decisive step 
that necessarily ended Pennsylvania's Proprietary Government 
without further formalities, when the delegates of all the colonies 
signed the immortal document that introduced a new Nation to an 
astonished world, and made the Fourth of July, 1776, forever historic. 

On that very day the diarist of Bethlehem recorded how, when 
they had seen in the newspapers that the Congress had resolved to 
declare the Colonies free and independent States, their hearts were 
melted and they were exhorted by "Brother Nathanael" — Bishop 
Seidel — to remember the situation of things before the Lord. They 
then knew of the memorable resolution introduced by Richard Henry 
Lee on June 7, and, after protracted debate, voted on, July 2 — all 
approving excepting Delaware and four of Pennsylvania's seven 
delegates — that the "United Colonies are and of right ought to be 
free and independent States ; and that all political connection between 
them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally 



1772 1778- 447 

dissolved." Then again, on the 8th of July, when the public reading 
of the Declaration of Independence, signed in final form with the 
statement of reasons on the 4th, took place in Philadelphia, and the 
election of delegates to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention 
of the 20th was held in all the counties, the diary of Bethlehem refers 
to both things ; but without comment, beyond the remark that, in 
the Northampton County election, the Brethren remained away, that 
the Associators carried everything, and that five German and three 
Irish farmers were elected. In the excitement of the hour, the Morav- 
ian leaders, like so many others in Pennsylvania who thought the 
steps taken premature and precipitate, came under the odium of 
being enemies of the Country because they favored upholding the 
Proprietary Government, against which, not many years before, the 
same class of men in the county who now denounced them for this 
reason, had persistently tried to prove them the secret conspirators. 
That they, as well as the few eminent public men who held and 
advocated this view and the large body of citizens who stood with 
them in it, were in error, as to the best policy of the hour and as to 
the Divine Providence in the events that were to work out the grand 
destinies of the Nation, of course, became clear before many years, 
and in due time was recognized by them. Meanwhile, however, every 
hasty and vehement man who happened to have placed himself on 
the right side of the question, considered it his privilege to decry 
them all in a body as the foes of the Country ; for it is always difficult, 
when feeling runs high and controversy is rife, for advocates of 
radical measures for reaching a desirable end to refrain from 
regarding every one who differs from their ideas about the methods 
and policies as, ipso facto, an opponent of the ultimate end sought. 
The lower down in combined intelligence and character men stand, 
the more violent and intolerant they naturally are in such issues ; and 
so those on the popular side who belonged to the rabble were the 
surest that it was their duty, as patriots, to despoil all who had indis- 
criminately been made odious as anti-revolutionists, no matter how 
innocent of any act or intrigue to the detriment of the cause, or 
even if they were more highly patriotic than themselves, but unfor- 
tunately thought the rights of their Country ought to have been 
longer struggled for in other ways. 

So it came to pass that while some troops who passed through 
Bethlehem, as already remarked, behaved respectfully, were willing 
to believe that the Moravians were not dangerous people, and in 



448 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

some cases even embraced the opportunity to attend Divine service 
in a body — for there were men who associated lofty and sacred ideas 
with the stern duties of the time that had called them to arms — a few 
other companies came with howling and cursing against "the Tory 
nest" that "ought to be burned down" and their officers found it 
difficult to restrain them, had to take measures to protect property, 
and had to place guards at the doors of the Sisters' House. So it 
came also that, throughout all the complications and embarrassments 
of their situation, the Moravians always met the most frieiidly, 
considerate and understanding treatment from the chief men who 
led the Revolution both in thought and action, and who bore its 
foremost responsibiUties, both in the counsels of the Nation and 
the State and on the field of battle. Time and again, emergencies 
of a tr3'ing character were safely passed, by appeal from the perse- 
cution of some petty official of the county or subordinate in the 
army to the higher authorities^ 

During the weeks that followed the Declaration of Independence 
a second season of slight hubbub came for Bethlehem, when some 
of the activities of war again touched the place. On July lo and ii, 
about twenty army wagons with numerous prisoners from Canada 
passed through. On the 15th, the wagon from Bethlehem, which 
made stated trips to Hope, N. J., was stopped, after it started from 
Easton on the return to Bethlehem, by several county militia officers 
and searched, under suspicion of containing ammunition for secret 
deposit. To their chagrin, they merely found several barrels of flour. 
On the 23d, Col. Kichline came from Easton to collect all the fire- 
arms at Bethlehem. Some yet remained stored at the place from the 
time of the Indian war. He would have taken every gun, but was 
induced to leave several, upon representation that the village should 
not be left utterly without a gun, so that "there would not even be 
one about to so much as kill a mad dog." He was followed on the 
29th, by Col. George Taylor to make a further search for arms. On 
the 30th, a company of 120 men marched through from Allentown, 
bound for the Flying Camp in New Jersey. The urgent calls that 
now came to the militia of Northampton County to march to the field 
of action, produced the singular combination of results that, among 
many of them, there was, of a sudden, a marked disinclination to do 
so, some calling into question the authority that ordered them and 
some claiming to be only committed to home-guard duty ; while at 
the same time when such thus shrank from this first test, a new outcry 



1772 1778. 449 

was raised against the Moravians for not turning out to drill. The 
latter had, on July 28, 1776, for the first time, omitted the mention of 
the King of England in the petitions of the Church litany, and sub- 
stituted special prayer for the Country. 

During the month of August, troops were continually marching 
through the place en route for the Flying Camp in New Jersey. The 
diary notes in reference to them reveal the variety of spirit in which 
these men went out to face the realities of war. Some of them, when 
halting at Bethlehem, requested that religious services might be held 
and sermons preached for their benefit. In one case the officers are 
quoted as saying that it might be the last such opportunity of their 
lives. Ettwein usually officiated on these occasions and preached. 
In other cases they did not seem to take their situation, duties and 
prospects, so seriously. Several times the buoyant temper and gala- 
day manner of the militia were noted, as they came into the place with 
cheers and ringing martial music. Then again there was merely a 
quiet, plodding air — hilarious bravado, patriotic enthusiasm and 
serious emotion being all absent. The most of these companies were 
from Berks and Lebanon Counties, representing the various elements 
of the Pennsylvania rural districts, but mainly recruited from the 
sturdy German yeomanry of the region ; men with little brag and 
bluster and no blatant threats against the Tories, but with the making 
of good soldiers in them, all the more, who could be depended upon 
when it was rather a matter of work than of talk. Mention is occasion- 
ally made of particular individuals, mainly among the officers ; Cap- 
tain John Old, from Reading; Captain George Will, also of Berks 
County, who is referred to as a shoemaker and a native of Stettin, 
whose father, when a young man, had lived at Herrnhut ; Captain 
Daniel de Turk, of the family at Oley, where the first Indian converts 
of the Moravian Church were baptized in the barn of one of them : 
Captain George May, from Reading, who, it is stated, was from Lan- 
gendiebach in the Wetterau and had, as he informed the ministers at 
Bethlehem, once worked at Herrnhaag, the abandoned Moravian 
settlement of that region. Two members of the Moravian Church,® 

6 It may be noted here that the strict compact to all refrain from participating in active 
military service did not extend beyond the exclusive church settlements, where it was 
believed that the maintenance of the theoretical character and purpose of these villages, so 
organized, required the taking of this position. A number of Moravians of the ordinary 
town and country congregations joined the militia. 
30 



4SO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Sturgis and Guenther, are mentioned as among the five companies 
from Lebanon who arrived on August 17, and as having been shown 
special fraternal hospitality at Bethlehem. 

On Sunday, September i. Col. Balthaser Geehr, with his com- 
mand, the Fourth Battalion, from Berks County — about 400 men — 
suddenly arrived and the morning service was interrupted. At four 
o'clock they filed into the church — the present old chapel — filling 
the place, and Ettwein preached a sermon. It is stated that they 
all listened attentively and that the occasion was a very impressive 
one. Then, as the month of September advanced, some militia 
several times passed through in the other direction, having served 
their time and preferring to return home. An occasional straggling 
deserter put in an appearance. 

From such the first news of the disastrous battle of Long Island 
was received at Bethlehem, and on September 18, the word came 
that the British had occupied New York City and that the American 
forces had been defeated at Ticonderoga. Families connected with the 
Moravian Church in New York began to arrive and on the same day 
Col. Gruenewald with the Lebanon battalion again passed through 
the place on their return from Jersey. At the end of September, the 
diary refers to the completed work of the Pennsylvania Constitutional 
Convention, to the last sessions of the old Assembly and to its 
vain resolutions in protest against the acts of the Convention which 
had legislated it out of existence. A new General Assembly was 
provided for, as the legislative body, and a Council of twelve as exec- 
utive, with a President chosen each year by joint ballot of the 
Assembly and the Council ; while a Council of Censors, consisting 
of two from each city and county, was also provided for, as part of 
the proposed future governmental machinery of the State. 

The diary of 1776, in briefly noting the end of the Convention and 
the last acts of the Assembly, refers to the vain resolutions of the 
latter to ease the situation of non-Associators, and, on October i, 
observes that the annual election of Assemblymen went by default. 
On October 19, there was a consultation of those men in Bethlehem 
who according to an act of the old Assembly would now have to pay 
£3, 10 each, and it was decided to address the new authorities in the 
hope that relief might be secured from the new Legislature. None 
from Bethlehem attended the election of Inspectors and Committee- 
men on November 2, because they understood that the Associators 
would hold the election "according to battalions," and no non-Asso- 



1772 1778- 451 

ciators would be permitted to vote without first taking tlie oatli 
prescribed by tlie Convention. In November there were again 
dehberations on the subject of prices. On the 4th, a consulation was 
held with the masters of trades and the workmen, on the mooted 
question of raising both the price of wares and the wages. It was 
decided to do nothing in the matter before New Year, and the 
workmen agreed to this. On the 19th, the price of fuel was under 
discussion, people of the neighborhood having greatly increased this. 
It was resolved to fix the price of hickory wood at twelve shillings 
and that of oak wood at nine shillings per cord, and an understanding 
to this effect was had with all concerned. 

Now the sky began to grow darker and storms filled the air. On 
November 20, 1776, the news of the capture of Fort Washington 
reached Bethlehem through Col. Taylor, who came from Easton to 
get certain fire-arms yet deposited in the office of John Okely, the 
Justice. A week later, Lieutenant Cleveland and Col. Preston are 
mentioned in the records as in Bethlehem, followed by many other 
officers, and a report came that British prisoners from Reading and 
Lancaster were to be brought through Bethlehem. "From Phila- 
delphia we heard nothing but dread and fear," says the diary. New 
excitement was occasioned in the neighborhood by an emergency call 
for the militia of the county yet awaiting orders. As a soft note, char- 
acteristic of normal Bethlehem, in the midst of the discordant sounds 
of those days, drops in the record, on November 30, that David 
Tanneberger had set up the new organ in the Brethren's House. 
Then, like a sudden clap of thunder from a bolt sent down bj' the 
gathering storm upon that very house, came in the afternoon of 
December 3, the announcement that the General Hospital of the Con- 
tinental Army was to be at once moved to Bethlehem and was on the 
way. In the evening Director General of the hospitals, Dr. Wil- 
liam Shippen, and Surgeon General John Warren arrived, after Dr. 
Cornelius Baldwin, who had prejceded them, had announced his 
instructions to make preparations.' Ettwein and the Warden Dencke 
assured them of the readiness of the Brethren to put all the avail- 

7 Two official missives were received at Betlilehem that afternoon ; one from Dr. John 
Warren, Surgeon General and Acting Director, and the other, supplementary to it, brought 
by Dr. Baldwin from the Committee of Northampton County. They were the following: 

Easton, Decem'r 3d 1776. 
Gent'n. 

You will see by the Letter herewith sent, that the General Hospital of the Army is 

ordered to be at Bethlehem. We therefore request you that you would be aiding and assist- 



452 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

able room at their disposal, but begged for such arrangements as 
would not, if possible, demoralize the accustomed routine. This 
was promised. It is observed in the record that this move was evi- 
dently pre-arranged, for it was known at large in Philadelphia before 
it was announced at Bethlehem, "whether with good or evil intent 
God knows." It is furthermore remarked that the prevailing feeling 
at once was to submissively acquiesce ; if there was evil intent on 
the part of those who first planned the arrangement, to overcome it 
with good, and to take encouragement in this good from the daily 
text of the Church, which very significantly was the passage in the 
Saviour's parable relating to bringing in the poor, the maimed, the 
halt and the blind. 

As to the plan, whatever part any county officials may have had 
in first drawing attention to Bethlehem, as a desirable point for a 
hospital, and whatever thought they may have entertained of thus 
giving the Moravians something to bear in addition to paying fines 
in lieu of military service, it was not unnatural that the Medical Com- 
mittee, or whoever, primarily, had the responsible selection of such 
sites in charge, should have had an eye upon this place, with its large 
buildings located outside the zone of disturbance. It was not 
unreasonable, either, to expect the Bethlehem people to bear this 
kind of a burden in the extremity, for this did not call for any viola- 

ing to Doct'r Baldwin who waits upon you with this, and who is come for the purpose of 
procuring suitable accommodations for the sick, to furnish him with such proper accommo- 
dations as Bethlehem can afford. 

By order of the Committee, 

Abraham Berlin, 
To the Rev. Nath. Seidel, Chairmnn. 

Bethlehem. 
To the Connnittee of the Town of Bethlehem^ or others whovi it may Concern : 
Gentlemen : 

According to his Excellency General Washington's Orders, the General Hospital 
of the Army is removed to Bethlehem, and you will do the greatest act of humanity by 
immediately providing proper buildings for their reception, the largest and most capacious 
will be the most convenient. I doubt not, Gentlemen, but you will act upon this occasion 
as becomes Men and Christians ; Doct'r Baldwin, the Gentleman who waits upon you with 
this, is sent upon the Business of Providing proper Accommodations for the sick ; begging 
therefore that you will afford him all possible Assistance, 
I am Gentlemen, 

Your most obedient humble servant, 
Hanover Gen'l Hospit'l. John Warren, 

December I, 1776. Gen'' I Hospit'l Surg'n and P. T. Direct. 



1772 1778. 453 

tion of scruples about bearing arms or taking oath, and appealed to 
the sentiments of humanity in a way regarded as quite in accordance 
with their professed character and mission. They at once so viewed 
it, and the readiness with which the preparations were commenced 
for receiving the hospital in the Brethren's House — in every way the 
most suitable of the large buildings — manifestly gratified, and pos- 
sibly surprised the hospital authorities. Whereas, at first the intention 
had been to bring right to Bethlehem the entire number of patients 
destined for the Forks of the Delaware — half of the thousand then 
in the Morristown hospital — it was now concluded not to unduly 
burden the village and leave the neighboring places, which had also 
been had in view as possible sites, undisturbed. Therefore, it was 
decided to assign to Bethlehem, for the time being, a quota of about 
two hundred and fifty and to quarter the rest of the five hundred, to 
be conveyed across the Delaware, at Easton and Allentown. It 
appears that eventually the whole number brought to the three 
places was less than five hundred. Doubtless some were found to 
be beyond the possibiHty of removal from Morristown and others 
probably succumbed on the way, for two died in the wagons after 
they reached Bethlehem, before they could be carried into the house. 
Several dwelling-rooms and other apartments in the Brethren's 
House had been vacated and gotten into readiness, the next day, 
and on December 5, the wagons began to arrive with their freight of 
poor, suffering men. Yet more came the following day. Their pitiable 
condition, aggravated by the cold weather and the hardships of the 
journey, awakened the deepest commiseration at Bethlehem, and all 
possible effort was made to provide them with the first necessary 
comforts. The stores for the hospital did not arrive until three days 
after the first patients reached the place. 

While the hospital was being established, a number of officers and 
straggling squads of militia passed through, who had come from 
Ticonderoga. On this occasion the village had its first slight exper- 
ience of disorderly conduct, for they were of the rougher element, 
were in a demoralized and reckless mood and ready, upon the slightest 
pretext, to create tumult. Ettwein observes that, in connection with 
this episode, the presence of the army hospital with the body of 
officers and escorts attached, proved, at the very beginning, to be a 
safe-guard for Bethlehem, making amends for the burden its presence 
occasioned. 

The single men were not compelled to vacate the entire building. 
Some apartments in several other houses had to be fitted up for the 



454 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

reception of special cases ; tiiere being several minor officers and at 
least one commissioned officer among the suffering caravan. This 
was Col. Isaac Reed, of the Fourth Virginia Regiment, who had sent 
a surgeon in advance of his arrival to secure him private quarters, 
which were furnished him over the store in the Horsfield house. 
Word was, furthermore, received that many additional sick were to 
be brought from Trenton. Some of these arrived on the afternoon 
of December 8, but remained on the south side of the river. They 
were temporarily quartered at the Crown Inn, or one of the near-by 
structures. The inn, which, in the financial settlements of 1771, had 
become the property of the Bethlehem Diacony, had been leased to 
August Henry Francke, a member of the Pezold colony of 1754, who 
at this time had charge of it. Two of these unfortunate men died 
while lying there. There is no reference to their interment, and 
their names are not known. Perhaps they were added to those whose 
remains reposed in the little cemetery of the south side, on the hill. 
The previous day, December 7, the first two men died in the hospital. 
A spot was selected for their interment on the blufif across the 
Monocacy, back of the Indian House. There, subsequently, hundreds 
of graves were filled by the bodies of unnumbered and unregistered 
patriot'dead. 

On December 10, Ettwein commenced the duties of a chaplain in 
the hospital, by oiificial arrangement, in addition to all the other cares 
and responsibilities he had to bear which were onerous ; Bishop Seidel 
being in failing health and incapable of vigorous leadership, and the 
other men associated with him in the pastorate not being adapted 
to the extraordinary duties of such a situation, or not sufficiently 
conversant with English. As regularlj' as possible he made semi- 
weekly visits to all the wards, praying beside the rude pallets of 
suffering and dying men, comforting the hearts of those who were 
professors of Christian faith, pointing those who were not to the 
Friend of sinners, and statedly preaching sermons, as the circum- 
stances permitted. Now, in addition to the turmoil already prevailing, 
the panic in Philadelphia was causing many of the persons who had 
fled from the cit)' to make their way to Bethlehem, as others from 
New York and the adjacent parts had been doing; while various 
ofificers and the wives and children of others arrived. Among these 
was the family of Dr. Shippen, whose little son, William Lee, died at 
Bethlehem and was buried in the cemetery of the place. Among 
those who arrived on December 15, was General Horatio Gates, then 



1772 1778- 455 

the ranking Division Commander under Wasliington. His presence 
was of value to Bethlehem during the following days of great 
confusion and even of peril at one time, from the danger of a stampede 
upon the place by a great horde of impetuous and crude soldiery. 
About noon, on December 17, word came that General John Sullivan 
with several thousand troops was on the march towards Bethlehem 
and desired to have a supply of bread baked for his men. With the 
resources of the place already taxed as they were, this was not 
possible. General Gates sent an Adjutant to meet them and tell them 
to cross the river and camp in the Saucon Valley. This was not 
heeded, perhaps by reason of conflict of authority and some official 
jealousy between Gates and Sullivan at that time. In the evening- 
three or four thousand of these troops camped near Bethlehem, but 
beyond burning up nearly all the fencing on both sides of the river 
to keep warm on that cold night, and foraging for hay, they made no 
inroads upon the property of the place, and the next day they 
marched on. General Gates took various precautions to obviate dis- 
turbances that night. Among other things, he posted guards at all 
the doors of the Sisters' House. There were reasons for such meas- 
ures. The main body of these men were those who had before been 
under command of that unprincipled military ruffian. General Charles 
Lee, of questionable fame, who had lately had himself captured by 
the British, and whose command had been turned over to a more 
worthy successor in General Sullivan. Lee had made rough boasts 
of what he would have his men do to the Tory town of Bethlehem, 
and had even made a wicked allusion to the Sisters' House as a 
special attraction, thus fostering among the troops not only entirely 
erroneous ideas about the place, but even base designs upon it. 
Instead of all this, the men, under another General, left everything 
untouched, beyond — as stated — burning the fences around them 
while in camp, with no kind of shelter, and appropriating some food 
for the horses, neither of which things were censurable under the 
circumstances of war. Their commander, accompanied by thirty 
other officers, instead of rioting at the place, spent part of the even- 
ing sitting quietly in the church, listening to sacred music. 

Among men of high rank in Bethlehem at this time the records 
mention, besides the names of Gates and Sullivan, those of Arnold, 
Glover and Sterling. The Sun Inn was crowded with oi^cers that 
night, December 17, 1776. Twelve were lodged in the old Community 
House, which had become the Clergy House of the place, for, with 



456 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the exception of several rooms, all of its apartments were now occu- 
pied by the families of ministers employed in various capacities. 
Ettwein records that between five and six hundred men of the army 
and connected with the hospital were under roof in Bethlehem that 
night, besides the thousands of troops bivouacking in the near-by 
fields. General Gates left with the troops he had under command 
on December 19, but the next evening a company of about a hundred 
and fifty arrived from Albany and spent the night. They left the 
next day. 

Gradually the condition of Bethlehem became more quiet again 
for a season. Christmas Eve services were held as usual and nearly 
the entire hospital staff was present. Dr. Shippen and most of the 
surgeons left for the army on Christmas Day, in response to a sum- 
mons from headquarters. Dr. John Morgan, another prominent 
hospital physician, with several others, went away to New England 
soon after New Year. Dr. James Houston, whom Ettwein praises 
as the most skillful and attentive of the whole staff, remained, with 
several assistants, until the middle of March. During those weeks 
the regular round of services was maintained through all the turmoil 
with but few interruptions, showing the determination of the people 
not to give way to demoralizing influences if possible. On New 
Year Eve they gathered quietly at ten o'clock to hear the memora- 
bilia of the year, according to custom, and even held the usual vigils 
at midnight without any unseemly interruption. 

During those exciting weeks, carpenters and laborers of the place 
were busily employed in making cofifins and digging graves on the 
hill across the Monocacy; for disease, with the effects of exposure 
and hardship, was working sad havoc among the sufferers in the hos- 
pital. According to the count kept by Ettwein, sixty-two died dur- 
ing December, and when the last inmates were removed on March 
2j, 1777, and the hospital was closed, the number had reached a hun- 
dred and ten. They were all buried at that place. Besides this work 
that was done gratuitously by the workmen of Bethlehem, certain of 
the single men who continued to occupy quarters in a part of their 
house voluntarily lent much assistance to the hospital stewards, in 
their unpleasant and trying duties, with the desire to help alleviate 
the misery of the patients as much as possible. On one day, Sunday, 
December 22, five deaths occurred. Among the men in that long 
list of the Nation's unnamed martyrs, three are referred to by Ettwein 
as special objects of his solicitous attention near the close of Decem- 



1772 1778- 457 

ber. Their names were Preuss, a Tyrolese ; Nathaniel McNee and 
Thomas Powell. 

During the first three months of 1777, Bethlehem was several 
times in quite serious danger from undisciplined and lawless militia 
who had been stirred up against the place by the agitation of embit- 
tered men and the wild stories set afloat, which in such times found 
ready credence among excited people who were not in a position to 
know the facts of the case. During those months, the guard of 
upwards of a hundred men left at the place while it was occupied by 
the Continental Hospital, having their barracks near the saw-mill, 
on the Sand Island, were of great value as its protectors against 
depredation and its defenders against calumny. They were disci- 
plined and trustworthy men and had learned to know the principles, 
motives and character of the Bethlehem people. Grateful acknowl- 
edgement of their services in this respect is made in the records. It 
is not much to the credit of some of the people who, during the 
Indian war, had made Bethlehem their place of refuge, when they 
were panic-stricken, and had experienced treatment as kind as if they 
had never been anything but friends, that instead of remembering 
that and having better feelings towards the Moravians than they had 
been cherishing before that, they were now, with their boys, who 
had grown up to be men, principally the people who fostered this 
"vindictive spirit wherever their influence extended. From the town- 
ships to the west of Bethlehem the militia who planned those preda- 
tory sallies upon Bethlehem mainly hailed. 

The latter part of February, 1777, a new experience came, when a 
large quantity of continental stores were brought to Bethlehem for 
temporary deposit under guard. This was thought by some, at first, 
to increase the danger of the place ; but, on the contrary, it enhanced 
its importance as a point to be protected by both civil and military 
authorities. At the same time, however, small-pox broke out among 
the soldiers, and a general inoculation took place among them and 
among the children of Bethlehem. During April and May, various 
prominent officers again visited the town, and on May 9, Lady Wash- 
ington was expected at the place by a mounted guard sent to escort 
ber to Philadelphia, but she had pursued her journey down the coun- 
try from the Delaware by another road and did not, on this occasion, 
pass Bethlehem. During the spring, the names of Generals John 
Armstrong, Philip Schuyler and Joseph Reed appear in the records, 
as visitors who had not before been at the place, and on June 25, 



458 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

General Thomas Mifflin, who in 1790 became the first Governor of 
Pennsylvania under the constitution, arrived to make better provi- 
sion for guarding the continental stores, and to establish arrange- 
ments for the arrest of deserters from the army who ventured into 
the neighborhood. Quartermaster Robert Lettis Hooper, now on 
duty in Northampton County, received these orders at Bethlehem. 
The latter had caused a slight panic on May 12, by the statement that 
Bethlehem was listed as one of the interior points of rendezvous for 
the Continental Army, in the event of repulse and retreat. On 
July 25, consternation was produced by the announcement that the 
army was really in motion towards the neighborhood, and a demand 
for all available boats and wagons at Easton was sent through the 
country. But three days later it was learned that its crossing-place 
was farther down the Delaware. Before this call for boats and 
wagons, already the middle of May, there had been a collection of 
blankets for the army. The quota to be furnished by Northampton 
County was 167. Bethlehem supplied 27 of these, a number declared 
satisfactory by the Commissioners ; and they were gotten without 
the necessity of any search or compulsion, such as was required in 
some other parts of the county. 

During the summer of 1777, members of Congress from the 
New England States, on their way to Philadelphia, visited Bethlehem 
and looked about the place with much interest, for it had acquired 
associations in connection with the experiences of the preceding year 
that made it an object of curiosity to many public men who before 
had given it no thought. One interesting person who appears upon 
the scene at this time is the loyalist soldier-preacher. Captain Thomas 
Webb, often styled "the Father of Methodism in America." He 
came to Bethlehem from Philadelphia on May 31, 1777. as a pris- 
oner of war on parole, with his family of seven persons. His per- 
mit restricted him to a radius of six miles about Bethlehem. He 
remained until February 22 and his wife until August 12, 1778. They 
were given quarters in "Lindemeyer's rooms" and when these were 
demanded in September for quartering officers among the British 
prisoners of war, they moved into the "William Boehler house." 
During the months of his sojourn he occasionally preached to pris- 
oners and every Sunday at the house of the Widow Cruickshank, on 
the south side of the river. He also ofificiated at her funeral on 
November 26. A sojourner to whom the Bethlehem people had 
become personally attached was the brave and patient sufferer Col. 



1772 1778. 459 

Isaac Reed, of Mrginia, who, as already stated, had arrived with the 
hospital caravan in December, and been given a room "over the 
store." On June 22, he was carried by some Bethlehem men down 
to the ferry and, accompanied bj^ two of them and his physician. Dr. 
Alexander Skinner, and Mr. Sutton, paymaster, was conveyed in a 
sedan chair to Philadelphia. His death there, on August 21, is 
referred to in the Bethlehem diary. He was of much service at 
Bethlehem through his counsel and influence with guards and olft- 
cers of militia companies, in preventing both inadvertent disorder 
and wilful annoyance. 

During the summer of 1777, the hardships of the Test Act began 
again to press heavily upon the Moravians, as upon so many others 
in Pennsylvania vi'ho declined to take the oath. The Congress, in 
June, made the demand more stringent than before. This had 
become a stern necessity, for the obstacles put in the way of the 
patriot cause by the machinations of its open and secret enemies 
were felt keenly. Many members of Congress, even some of those 
who favored the most drastic measures with such persons, would, 
as they repeatedly declared, have gladly so discriminated as to spare 
people like those of the Moravian settlements — from whom they 
were convinced no danger was to be feared — from feeling its rigors. 
But it was not possible to pass different acts for different classes of 
people who had not abjured the King and taken the oath of allegi- 
ance to the United States ; and even if this had been possible, it 
would not have been feasible, as was pointed out, on account of the 
fierce resentment it would have aroused in some quarters, as among 
those in Northampton County who really wished to see the Mora- 
vians at Bethlehem, more than any other class or kind of non-Asso- 
ciators, feel its weight, and who now took advantage of the new Act 
to institute a process of petty hounding and harrying, more relent- 
less than before. It far exceeded anything such persons had engaged 
in during the crusade against the Indian missions, for more was now 
possible and more would be publicly condoned. The Act, as it now 
stood, left them with practically no protection or redress at law, and 
with nothing to fall back upon but such measure of good will as they 
might enjoy and the overruling Providence of God. Under these 
circumstances, when the darkest time of the Revolution drew on, 
towards the close of 1777, the presence of disciplined and trustworthy 
soldiers on duty at the place became, instead of a hardship, their best 
human safeguard. 



460 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Whether the Brethren were justified in thus standing so stoutly 
by their principles and scruples in this matter and endeavoring to 
hold all who might have yielded, together on this ground, may well 
be questioned ; for the time was past when further loyalty to the King 
could fairly have been regarded as a religious duty, and the provision 
that affirmation might take the place of an oath, in formally trans- 
ferring allegiance, removed the scruple about taking oath. That 
under the increasing tension and the exasperating struggle against 
Tory intrigues, becoming almost desperate, so many who were in 
the thick of the fight or laboring under the tremendous responsibili- 
ties of the time continued to have unshaken confidence in them and 
to view their attitude leniently, is remarkable. That some leading 
men in the county who respected them and had been personally their 
friends, began to lose patience and make less effort to restrain the 
hot-headed zealots and the rabble, is not surprising. Many Mora- 
vians at other places took the test and remained just as good people 
as they were before. In view of all this, it is a matter of astonish- 
ment that they passed through the ordeal unscathed, beyond the 
frightful bleeding to which they were unmercifully subjected in the 
matter of militia fines. It stands as a notable instance of how inno- 
cence of evil intent and sincerity of motive are often taken care of 
by the unseen hand. 

As the autumn of 1777 drew on, Bethlehem again began to feel 
the efifects of a new excitement and apprehension. Early in August, 
Philadelphia was in a panic in consequence of the movements of the 
British fleet, off the Capes of the Delaware. On August 4, came an 
impressment of wagons — two hundred from the county, of which 
number four were taken from Bethlehem — to convey women and 
children from the city. A week later it is noted that about three 
thousand wagons had been collected there. Those from the neigh- 
borhood of Bethlehem were returned, August 12. As an instance of 
the price to which some indispensable commodities had risen, with 
the continental currency steadily depreciating, it is noted that a 
bushel of salt cost at this time $22. One of the Bethlehem wagons 
brought along a supply purchased at this price. Frederick Beitel, 
the wagon-master at Bethlehem, was, at this time, continually on 
the road in the continental service and participating in the turmoil 
of travel and transportation. Now it was to transport sick officers, 
then official baggage or continental stores, and again British pris- 
oners of ran^ that he was called out for. 



1772 1778- 461 

On August 23, General Nathaniel Green and General Henry 
Knox, who with some other officers had ridden into Bethlehem to 
enjoy a few hours of quiet, were hastily summoned by an express 
to return to camp, for the British were landing south of Philadel- 
phia. Two days after this sensation, twenty British officers passed 
through from Reading as prisoners of war, and on September 2, 
before daylight, a messenger brought the announcement from there 
that, by order of the Board of War, 260 British prisoners were to 
be brought to Bethlehem to be kept here under a strong guard. 
Late in the afternoon came Quartermaster Hooper, Sheriff Jennings 
and County Lieutenants Wetzel and Deshler to select quarters for 
them. These County Lieutenants were supposed to have been 
instrumental in bringing this upon the place, as a kind of grim irony, 
giving the Moravians some of the King's troops as guests. Wetzel 
in particular — himself once a member of the Moravian Church, grad- 
uated from that early school for naughty boys in the Long Swamp 
and then on the south side at Bethlehem — was the most relentless in 
harassing the Moravians. He was a man of surly and dogged dispo- 
sition and, moreover, like several of the neighboring squires 
appointed by the new Assembly, such as Morey and Hartman, who 
were also particularly diligent in over-officiously worrying Bethlehem 
about the test oath, was greatly exalted by a sense of the authority 
with which he was dressed. The next day, the oft-mentioned large 
stone house — former "Anstalt," now "Family House" — was selected. 
Protests availing nothing, an appeal was sent by express to the 
Board of War at Philadelphia. The answer received three days later 
left nothing to do but to make the best of it.^ The water works 
became barracks for the guard. Three families had to vacate their 
apartments in the large house ; the Administrator, deSchweinitz, who 
moved into the old Community House with the other clergy ; Cap- 
tain Webb, who was occupying the Rev. Henry Lindemeyer's rooms, 

War Office, September 5, 1777. 
s Gentlemen : 

The Board have received a representation from you in behalf of the inhabitants of 
Bethlehem. They are extremely sorr)' that any inconvenience should arise from the execu- 
tion of an order of theirs relative to the prisoners to be stationed at Bethlehem. But the 
necessity of the case requires the measure, and the good people of your town must endeavor 
to reconcile the matter as well as they can. If the guards or persons employed deport them- 
selves improperly, any grievance the inhabitants complain of on this account will be im- 
mediately redressed ; and as soon as circumstances will admit, the prisoners will be removed. 

Richard Peters, 

Secretary. 



462 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

into William Boehler's house, as already stated, on the present Mar- 
ket Street, between the store and the present Main Street, and old 
Thomas Bartow, who, like many others, had moved to Bethlehem 
for rest some time before, took the room over the store, lately 
vacated by Col. Reed. On Sunday, September 7, at noon, 218 of 
these prisoners, consisting largely of Highlanders, arrived. The 
scene between the Brethren's House and the Sun Inn was one of 
turmoil, with a constant din on that Sunday afternoon, as the records 
state, while much apprehension was caused by the sound of distant 
cannonading at the same time. 

Four days later, came the collision on the Brandywine Creek, 
which resulted adversely to the patriot forces. On the evening of 
the 13th, the report came to Bethlehem that General Washington 
had to fall back upon Philadelphia. On the i6th, Major General 
Baron John de Kalb, while considering the flattering proposition of 
the Congress, in reference to which he had misgivings on the ground 
of possible slight to his chivalrous and brilliant friend, the young 
Marquis de La Fayette, with whom he had come over to aid the 
American cause, visited Bethlehem. While here, examining the 
institutions of the place, he wrote a letter on September 18, in refer- 
ence to his position, to Richard Henry Lee, which reveals his high- 
minded and honorable sentiments. ° Fie was accompanied to Beth- 
lehem by three French officers. On the same day John Okely, who 
served for a while as an Assistant Commissary in Northampton 
County, received an official letter from David Rittenhouse, member 
of the Board of War and State Treasurer, communicating the instruc- 
tions of General Washington to transfer the military stores to Beth- 
lehem. With this message, thirty-six wagons arrived from French 
Creek, laden with such stores. They were followed the next day by 
thirty-eight wagons. These supplies were deposited at the lime 
kilns near the Monocacy, a little to the north of the town, under a 
guard of forty troops. September i8th, a continual train of army 
wagons came into the place. A troop of raw and unruly militia came 
from Easton, bringing some Tories who had been arrested. Their 
character, the nature of their errand and the general confusion led 



9 This letter from Bethlehem, preserved in the Dreer collection, was first published in 
1890, by Dr. J. G. Rosengarten in The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States. 
Baron de Kalb fell in battle for the American cause in August, 1780. His presence, as an 
aid to the Revolutionary movement, seems to have particularly attracted the thoughtful 
attention of Ettvifein. He, like von Steuben, Pulaski, and others of that notable group of 
foreign officers, manifested special interest in Bethlehem. 



1772 1778- 463 

them to indulge in unrestrained boisterousness, shooting in all 
directions, and causing general uneasiness. 

On the 19th. other wagons arrived, bringing more dangerous 
freight — quantities of ammunition and material for the preparation 
of more — which was temporarily unloaded near the oil-mill. In the 
great variety of things transported from Philadelphia during those 
days were the bells of Christ Church, other church bells, and 
especially the now so sacredly historic State House bell that had 
pealed forth the announcement of independence. These — at least 
some of them — were conveyed, September 24, to Allentown and 
secreted in the cellar of Zion's Church. Somewhere, towards the 
descent to the mill, in the large open space in front of the Brethren's 
House, then spoken of as "der Plats" or the Square,^" the wagon 
conveying the "Independence Bell" broke down and this piece of 
freight, then already considered precious on account of its associa- 
tions, had to be unloaded for a while. ^^ 

'o Its boundaries were the house of the Single Brethren, now the middle building of 
the Young Ladies' Seminary, the line of the water-tower house, where the Moravian 
Church now stands, the apothecary's house and shop, now Simon Rau & Co., and the large 
stone Family House above it ; the line of the stabling to the north, where now the Eagle 
Hotel stands, and to the west the row of industrial establishments, where the present row 
of buildings on Main Street, west side, extends from the hotel down to the Seminary corner. 

II The "Liberty Bell," visited Allentown November 3, 1893, on its return from the World's 
Columbian Exposition at Chicago, was honored by a patriotic demonstration and permitted 
to remain over night in remembrance of its sojourn there, as commonly supposed, during 
the darkest days of the Revolution. The next day it was viewed and cheered by a throng 
in the rain at the railway station at Bethlehem, whence it was taken back to Philadelphia. 
The fortunes of war, which in September, 1777, brought these Philadelphia bells to the 
square in front of the Brethren's House of Bethlehem, at the same time terminated the 
history of a bell-foundery in the cellar of that house, when they converted it, the second 
time, into a military hospital. Matthias Toramerup, brazier and bell-founder, mentioned in 
a previous chapter, a native of Holstebroe in Jutland, Denmark, who came to Bethlehem in 
1761, established his handicraft in the basement of the house in which he and his fellow 
bachelors lived and wrought. His first product was probably the small prayer and refectory 
bell of the house, with, perhaps soon after that, April 5, 1762, a heavier cast, a bell for 
Bethabara, the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina. The Widows' House was 
furnished with a small bell similar to the first. July 29, 1768, he cast a more pretentious 
bell of 236 pounds for the Easton Court House. Then, in 1769, he turned out another, 
which, for many years, was the Allentown Academy bell. It bore the legend : " Matt. 
Tommerup, Bethleltem, filer Leon. Harbatel n. Salome Bei-lin, ij6g." It seems to have 
been first used on Zion's Church. Perhaps those persons were the donors. The bell is now 
in possession of Mr. Joseph Ruhe, of Allentown, who purchased the old Academy property, 
and whose residence, north-west corner of Eighth and Walnut Streets, occupies its site. 
Tommerup's last bell, doubtless — he moved to Christiansbrunn, September, 1777, and died 



464 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

But moi'e important and productive of more consequences than 
any of these arrivals was a letter^^ from the Director General of the 
Continental Hospitals brought to Ettwein by Dr. Hall Jackson on 
the evening of September 19, 1777. A second time Bethlehem had to 
furnish hospital accommodations, and for a much longer period, with 
far more of misery and havoc than the first time. Steps were imme- 
diately taken to put the Brethren's House, and this time the whole 
of it, at the disposal of the hospital authorities. The awful situation 
of the time was recognized as one that called for unhesitating 
co-operation in every effort to mitigate the distress of the suffering. 
The next day, September 20, the single men vacated their house. 
Some of them were given quarters in various dwelling houses of the 
village, others removed to the Brethren's House at Christiansbrunn 
and to Nazareth. Meanwhile, one caravan after another of soldiers 
came streaming into the place, in consequence of the exodus from 
Philadelphia, when it was clear that it would fall into the hands of the 
British, and Bethlehem became a scene of wild confusion, as never 
before. Dr. William Brown, of the hospital staff, arrived on that 
day and inspected the building turned over for their use. 

there, February 22, 1778 — was a recast, July 26, 1776, a little nrore than a month before the 
first hospital invasion — after two unsuccessful attempts, and after overcoming the difficulty 
with the old and added new metal by throwing in some silver — of the largest of the three 
bells cast in 1746 by Samuel Powell and hung in the little bell turret of the, at present, so- 
called Bell House on Church Street. In the recasting, its weight was increased from 116 
to 228 pounds. That historic bell, distinguished through all the years by having a succession 
of women as its ringers, hangs there yet, its tones, so familiar to six generations of Bethle- 
hemites, yet calling children to school and telling the organist when to begin playing at the 
evening services in the adjoining Old Chapel. Its long service as "quarter bell," 11.45 
a.m., to cheer the laborer by daily announcing " dinner soon," ceased in March, 1S71. 

i=My D'r Sir: 

It gives me pain to be obliged by order of Congress to send my sick and wounded 
Soldiers to your peaceable village — but so it is. Your large buildings must be appropriated 
to their use. We will want room for 2000 at Bethlehem, Easton, Northampton (AUentown), 
etc., and you may expect them on Saturday or Sunday. I send Dr. Jackson before them 
that you may have time to order your affairs in the best manner. These are dreadful times, 
consequences of unnatural wars. I am truly concerned for your Society and wish sincerely 
this stroke could be averted, but 'tis impossible. I beg Mr. Hasse's assistance — love and 
compliments to all friends from, my d'r Sir, 

Your affectionate 

humble -Serv't 
Trenton Sep. iS, 1777. W. Shippen, 

D. G. 
John Christian Masse referred to in the letter was accountant, scrivener and Notary 
Public at Bethlehem. 



1772 I77S. 46s 

Four members of Congress came in the evening, Richard Henry 
Lee, Benjamin Harrison, CorneHus Harnett and WiUiam Duer. The 
next day, Sunday, the 2ist, Henry Laurens arrived, who in Novem- 
ber following became President of Congress. His favorable dispo- 
sition towards the Moravian settlements and his relations of intimate 
personal friendship with Ettwein, proved of inestimable value to 
Bethlehem and to the interests of the Brethren generally. On that 
day and the next came other Congressmen, John Hancock, Samuel 
and John Adams, Nathan Brownson, James Duane, Eliphalet Dyer, 
Nathaniel Folsom, Joseph Jones, Richard Law, Henry Marchant 
and William Williams. General William Woodford, who became a 
particular friend of the Moravians, and General John Armstrong are 
also mentioned as arriving on that day. Another came, to whose 
personality and sojourn at Bethlehem a special interest and some- 
what of romance attached. This was the brave and gallant young 
French nobleman, the Marquis de La Fayette, whose devotion of 
himself and his fortune to the cause of American freedom remains 
one of the finest features of the sublime struggle. Wounded in the 
bloody conflict at Brandywine, which sent such a ghastly train to 
Bethlehem, he came with a suite of French officers to seek medical 
care at this place. From the Sun Inn he was taken to the neighbor- 
ing house of George Frederick Boeckel,^^ superintendent of the 
Bethlehem farm. There he was attentively nursed by Boeckel's 
wife Barbara and daughter Liesel, and pretty little stories with varia- 
tions, connected with his sojourn under that roof, were current 
among the local traditions many years afterward. While at Beth- 
lehem, he occupied some of the tedious hours in reading Cranz's His- 
tory of Greenland and the Moravian missions in that country, in 
which he became much interested. He remained until October i8. 

The wounded soldiers began to arrive on September 21, and, day 
after day, they came, besides many sick, until when, on October 22, 
a final train of wagons arrived with their loads of groaning sufferers, 
they had to be sent to Easton. The surgeons refused to receive any 
more. There were then over four hundred in the Brethren's House 
and fifty in tents in the rear of it, besides numerous sick officers in 
other buildings. At first it was proposed by the surgeons to have 
the Widows' House or a part of the Sisters' House also devoted to 
hospital uses when the building they were occupying became 
crowded. Then the presence of the members of Congress proved 

13 The site of the present confectionery of John F. Rauch, on Main Street. 
31 



466 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



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1772 1778- 467 

to be the means of averting what would have been a far greater hard- 
ship than the vacating of the Brethren's House. After inspecting 
these buildings, examining into their arrangements and getting an 
insight into all that would be involved in appropriating them to 
such use, as this was earnestly represented to them by Ettwein, they 
consulted together when they returned to the inn, and issued an 
order" which set this critical question at rest and removed all danger 
of such seizure from those buildings. The members of Congress 
were so much pleased with Bethlehem that they seriously considered 
the idea of establishing their quarters at the place, under the circum- 
stances that had arisen. This was not regarded with much satisfac- 
tion by the village fathers, for all that would be associated with such 
a move and would follow upon it, would inevitably revolutionize the 
character of the place. In the spring of 1780 this idea was broached 
again. It was advocated with sufficient zeal that it caused the 
authorities at Bethlehem some uneasiness and led Ettwein, upon the 
information given him by Attorney Lewis Weiss, of Philadelphia, 
in reference to the agitation of the project, to write a letter strongly 
deprecating it. 

Besides issuing that important order, the members of Congress 
interfered in other ways to relieve Bethlehem in the turmoil of that 
trving September, 1777. The throng and confusion became very 



14 This order, which has so often been reproduced in print and in fac-simile, and which is 

preserved, with other manuscript relics of that time, in the Moravian archives at Bethlehem, 

reads as follows : 

Bethlehem, September the 22d, 1777. 

Having here observed a diligent attention to the sick and wounded, and a benevolent 
desire to make the necessary provision for the relief of the distressed, as far as the power 
of the Brethren enable them, we desire that all Continental Officers may refrain from dis- 
turbing the persons or property of the Moravians in Bethlehem, and particularly, that they 
do not disturb or molest the Houses where the women are assembled. 
Given under our hands at the time and place above mentioned, 

Nathan Brownson, Richard Henry Lee, 

Nath'l Folsom, \Vm. Duer, 

Richard Law, Corn'l Harnett, 

John Hancock, Henry Laurens, 

Samuel Adams, Benj. Harrison, 

Eliph't Dyer, Jos. Jones, 

Jas. Duane, John Adams, 

Henry Marchant, 
Wm. Williams, 

Dclemtes to Cons'ress. 



468 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

great. Many apartments in private houses were invaded to 
make room for depositing luggage and effects which had to be put 
under roof and watch. Over seven hundred wagons witli munitions 
and baggage came to the place inside of twenty-four hours, with 
an escort of about two hundred men. They halted at first 
on the south side of the river, where all the remaining fences, the 
large field of buckwheat and other things were destroyed over 
night. Two days later, September 26, when about two hundred 
more wagons arrived, and all were brought across the river 
and parked in the fields to the north-west of the town, the quaHty of 
this added throng and confusion was fully realized. The troops 
assigned to this kind of duty were naturally not the pick of the army. 
The men gathered up to do service as teamsters were not likely to 
be of the more orderly class. When the statement is added in the 
records that a rabble of the lowest character, male and female, fol- 
lowed the wagon trains, it is not difficult to imagine the sights and 
sounds that prevailed by day and night. At the same time, amid 
wild rumors that the main army was approaching, General de Kalb, 
with a corps of engineers, was engaged in surveying the higher 
points in the vicinity, with a view to planning defences if necessary. 
That, in the midst of all this, the many British prisoners who had 
been quartered upon Bethlehem, and who might quite as well have 
been kept at another place not so sorely taxed, should remain to 
burden the town, was more than any one would desire unless delib- 
erately seeking to oppress the people. The Congressmen took speedy 
steps to secure their removal, which occurred on September 25. 
Through their efforts also, the dangerous powder magazine was 
transferred to a spot at some distance from the buildings sooner than 
would otherwise have been the case. Their presence and represen- 
tations led furthermore to all possible concentration of baggage and 
stores that had to be kept under roof, by direction of the officers now 
assuming police command, thus releasing many apartments that had 
been invaded. 

Loud cannonading was again heard on October 4, and the next 
day came the account of the battle of Germantown, in which the 
movements of the army, at first thought to be planned towards the 
back country, had issued. Ten days after the battle, came orders 
for the collection of clothing and blankets for the destitute and suffer- 
ing troops, issued by General Washington on the 6th. 

Under the circumstances then existing, the methods of making 
these collections were naturally not well organized and disciplined in 



1772 1778- 469 

detail, and the manner in which the people of Bethlehem were first 
addressed by the persons in charge in the county again showed a dis- 
position to make use of the opportunity in as oppressive a way as 
possible, with very rough men at hand to help execute instructions 
in their style. Here the good offices of General Woodford prevented 
what might readily have descended to wholesale loot and pillage. The 
people were given the opportunity to first produce what they were 
willing to contribute, before any search was made. Enough blankets, 
shoes, stockings and other wearing apparel were voluntarily 
brought together to at once satisfy the expectations of those in 
charge. This, as they had to acknowledge, was more than could be 
said of many other people who were not decried as Tories but, on 
the contrary, had talked vehement patriotism. An evidence of what 
kind of men some were, who were doing guard duty in connection 
with the baggage at Bethlehem, and what might have been expected 
if the execution of the order for blankets and clothing had not been 
thus carefull)' regulated, was furnished on the evening of October 9, 
when one of the soldiers entered the rooms of the Community House, 
although a guard was stationed there, broke open a clothes-press and 
appropriated what he could seize. Being evidently not very valorous, 
he fled when pursued by Ettwein with the cry "stop, thief," and 
dropped his plunder outside the house, while the guard remained in 
hiding. In like manner, ten days later, a window was broken open in 
the Sisters' House, but the miscreant made away with one woman's 
effects only, being frightened off before he could proceed further. 
Although but trifling incidents, amid the scenes and experiences of 
those times, such exploits, and other similar ones mentioned, reveal 
what would have been perpetrated by the unruly element among the 
soldiers who had come to Bethlehem with the wagon trains, to say 
nothing of the disreputable herd of camp-followers, if they had been 
unrestrained. As to the collection of blankets, clothing and other 
necessities, it may be added that instructions from headquarters 
required the commissary officials to give receipts, so that ultimately 
equitable settlement might be made. It appears that this was not 
carefully observed about the country. The articles gathered up in 
Bethlehem on this occasion were regarded by the people as dona- 
tions, like quantities of things furnished for the use of the hospital, and 
did not figure in the bills of damages later presented. In November, 
1777, an appeal was sent to Washington's headquarters to be relieved 
of the baggage and stores vet remaining at Bethlehem, and not 



470 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

belonging to the hospital department, so that the more undesirable 
class of soldiers and the riff-raff that had followed the wagon trains 
might be gotten rid of. It was felt that the presence of the hospital, 
with all that this brought with it, was a sufficient tax upon the people. 
The removal of these things took place gradually, after the middle of 
November. General Washington's baggage and other belongings of 
his headquarters that had been brought to Bethlehem on September 
24, and kept under a guard of forty men at the tile kiln near the 
Burnside house, up the Monocacy, were taken away on Christmas 
Eve, 1777. 

Encouragement to send such a petition to headquarters was appar- 
ently given by several of the delegates to Congress who passed 
through during the early part of November. On the day on which 
the message was sent, November 10, two Congressmen from New 
England, who left a diary of their journey, which has been published, 
arrived. They were William Ellery, of Rhode Island, who had been 
in Bethlehem with William Whipple, the previous June, and his son- 
in-law, Francis Dana, later Chief Justice of Massachusetts, accom- 
panied by the French General Roche de Fermoy, to whom, however, 
they had not made themselves known. Mr. Ellery records that on 
November 10, they rode in the rain from Easton to Bethlehem "for 
the sake of good accommodation." They remained over the next 
day on account of the rain and their tired horses. He says that at 
the Sun Inn they "fared exceedingly well, drank excellent Madeira 
and fine green tea, and ate a variety of well-cooked food of a good 
quality, and lodged well." He refers to the fact that the Congress 
had "ordered that the house of the single women should not be occu- 
pied b}^ the soldiery, or in any way put to the use of the army." One 
passage in his diary has some significance when taken in connection 
with the very plain intimation given, at a later time, by various Con- 
gressmen, that the petitions of the Moravians for relief from the 
rigors of the militia and test laws would meet with more favorable 
treatment if they ceased to make common cause with other non- 
Associators en masse, and were to present their case on their own dis- 
tinct ground. He says : "A number of light horse were at Nazareth 
feeding on the hay and grain of the Society, which I found was dis- 
agreeable, but at the same time perceived that they did not choose 
to complain much, lest their complaints should be thought to proceed 
not so much from their sufferings as from a dislike to the American 
cause. This people, like the Quakers, are principled against bearing 



1772 177»- 471 

arms, but are unlike them in this respect, they are not against paying 
such taxes as government may order them to pay towards carrying 
on war, and do not, I beheve, in a sly, underhand way, aid and assist 
the enemy, while they cry peace, peace, as the manner of some 
Quakers is, not to impeach the whole body of them." His desire 
to find good accommodations at Bethlehem can be appreciated when 
he describes another tavern, towards Reading, as "infamous" and 
"a sink of filth and abomination," and the landlad_v as "a mass of 
filth," with "avarice as great as her sluttishness ;" they having had of 
her "but a bit of a hotfk of pork, boiled a second time and some bread 
and butter," for they found their own tea, coffee and horse-feed, and 
slept in a room that "admitted the cold air at a thousand chinks," 
and on a bed that had "only a thin rug and one sheet." For this, he 
says, "this daughter of Lycurgus charged Mr. Dana, myself and 
servant, thirty-eight shilHngs, lawful money. "^^ 

During the closing months of 1777 and the early part of 1778, the 
severity of the militia and test acts was felt most keenly and was 
pressed most ruthlessly by the County Lieutenants and Justices. At 
that time all appeal was fruitless, for the exasperation felt at the fate 
of Philadelphia ; the terrible sufferings of Washington's heroic army 
at Valley Forge ; the heartless indifference and base treachery mani- 
fested by so many who had been loyalists or became such when 
Howe took Philadelphia — courting the British officers when the 
Revolution seemed almost to be a lost cause — reduced the disposition 
to make concessions on the ground of professed conscientious 
scruples to a minimum in almost every quarter. At the same time, 
as a careful and critical examination of the situation by writers, 
bringing forth not only some but all classes of facts, has often shown, 
not every Revolutionist was true and good and not every anti-Revol- 
utionist was perfidious and base. Not all who were ready, in the time 
of excitement and enthusiasm, to go to all lengths ; not all who 
without hesitation took the oath and turned out at call to drill or 
even to go to the front for a while ; not all who entered the service 
of the country in high or petty positions, were noble-minded, 
unselfish, heroic patriots, as it would be pleasant to believe. Wash- 
ington and his most valuable officers, as well as the best men in 
Congress and connected with the government of Pennsylvania, were 
constrained to strongly set forth the detriment to the cause resulting 



nSts Peiina. Mag. of ffisl. ami Biot;.. XI, 324-326, and Transac. Morav. Hist. Sac, 
II, 127-128. 



472 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

from personal jealousies and bickerings, the pursuit of selfish aims, 
and even the basest mercenary speculation on the distress of the 
country, on the part of some public men. There were among osten- 
sible patriots other traitors besides, later, Benedict Arnold, whose 
hearts were as base and their intrigues as perfidious, even if their 
offences were not of a nature that technically criminated them. There 
were also many who, although not weakening the cause by self-seek- 
ing, but goaded and exasperated by the situation of things — being 
also unreasonable, over-zealous and violent — expended energy in 
ways that effected nothing for the country, but rather created greater 
confusion and variance. Such awakened counter-resentment by indis- 
creet ardor, decrying every man as a Tory deserving extreme punish- 
ment who did not agree with their every wild and unjust project. 

The more the whole truth and all sides of it become known, giving 
a correct view of the situation, the less does a position like that 
occupied by the Moravians seem to need being apologized for, and 
the less hesitancy need there be about stating facts in connection with 
their more immediate relations to those who were in a position to 
bring the militia and test acts to bear hard upon them, even if the 
facts are not to the credit of some of those, in their county, who 
flourished as the foremost agents of the patriot cause. Not all of 
these men were unselfish and unsullied patriots, with an eye single to 
the country's interests. There were a few who made the collection 
of the militia fines from the Moravians and the procuring of substi- 
tutes for those of them who were called out and failed to respond, a 
profitable traffic. They were authorized to hire such substitutes "as 
cheaply as they could," and this left them discretion — at the expense 
of the delinquent — and they could, of course, forcibly recover the 
amount, if necessary. One of these Lieutenants, already referred to, 
unblushingly drew the attention of men available as substitutes to this 
opportunity to make money. "I need a substitute for this or that man. 
Demand as much as you please for he must pay it." Then there was 
room for juggling with the transaction, between the actual sums 
extorted and the nominal sums that ultimately figured in the reports ; 
and for a deal between the substitute thus employed and the official 
who put him in the way of earning the amount. That under the 
circumstances then existing, appeals against this extortion and fraud 
availed little, and investigation of corrupt practices could not be 
secured, is not hard to understand. 

Among the bugaboos that now and then served to keep alive 
suspicion and bitterness against Bethlehem, an interesting fiasco 



1772 1778. 473 

engaged the county officials at Easton, the middle of November, 
1777, and even called for the attention of the Supreme Executive 
Council of Pennsylvania, in considering the deposition of one "Silas 
Burnet, of Hacketstown, in the County of Sussex, in the State of New^ 
Jersey, Waggoner," made "upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty 
God" in reference to a mysterious small box conveyed by the deponent 
from Morristown to Easton in the autumn of 1776, and destined for 
Bethlehem, addressed — thought Col. Sidman, tavern-keeper at 
Easton, under whose counter the stage driver left the box, together 
with his tar bucket — to H. V. "supposed to be Mr. Vanfleck, of Beth- 
lehem," in care of Jost Jansen, tavern-keeper at the same place. This 
suspicious box, Mr. Sidman, as a vigilant patriot, "had the curiosity" 
to open "in the presence of Mr. Young," and he found "two bottles 
of simple water, sealed with several hundred of very treasonable 
printed papers, and signed I think" — writes Col. Robert Levers to 
Timothy Matlack — "Emerick." He adds : "I wish I had one to send 
you," but "Col. Sidman and Mr. Young burnt them, except a few, 
given to Col. Clem't Biddle, who happened to be in Easton at the 
time, who took them to Head Quarters, together with two written 
papers that were also in the box. The printed papers were calculated 
to excite the Germans to receive General Howe with open arms, and 
betray their Country. The written papers were a recommendation 
of the waters, as good to clear and open the eye-sight, and a direction 
to use them in the same manner that the former before sent were." 
A copy of Burnet's affidavit was sent for the perusal of the Council 
and to be laid before his Excellency General Washington. Col. 
Levers, who says he never saw the written papers, suggests in his 
letter: "It may lead to a great discovery, and unravel the cause of 
the Germans generally, at this time, being so inactive, rather 
unfriendly, if not inimical." Here the matter rested and apparently 
ended. The whole of it may be read in Volume VL of the Pennsyl- 
vania Archives. This box of a year before simply contained some 
eye-water with written directions, and had been indiscreetly wrapped 
in some German copies of Lord Howe's propositions of September, 
1776, which were circulated broadcast in some sections. While the 
sender may perhaps have wished to thus help circulate them — they 
merely related to the effort to yet compromise matters without 
further hostilities — their receipt by Henry Van Vleck, of Bethlehem, 
would have proven him a traitorous Tory as little as Franklin's 
consenting to the conference with Howe proved him to be one. An 



474 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

occasional episode like this helped to keep the excitement against 
Bethlehem alive, when there was danger that it might subside, and 
furnished those who were keeping up the agitation, fresh material 
with which to incite the impetuous to menacing demonstrations. 

In the midst of this Bethlehem was not only suffering an almost 
complete paralysis of all its productive industries and the depletion of 
its stores of grain — making the payment of the oppressive fines 
doubly hard — but was gradually reduced to the most meager supplies 
of bedding and raiment, in the effort to do everything that humanity 
dictated for the suffering multitude of the country's martyrs, on its 
hands. Long before the winter passed, the chests and drawers of the 
houses in Bethlehem were emptied of all the material that could be 
spared for lint and bandages, in the preparation of which women in 
the Sisters' House and the Widows' House contributed their share 
to the public service. "Three or four times," says Ettwein, "we 
begged blankets from our people for the soldiers and distributed 
them to the needy; likewise shoes and stockings and old trousers 
for the convalescents whose clothing had been stolen in the hospital, 
or who had come into it with nothing but a pair of ragged trousers 
full of vermin." The condition of things in the hospital became 
appalling towards the close of the year 1777. As already stated, the 
number of patients had increased beyond the facilities of the staff of 
physicians and surgeons to properly care for them, when additional 
wagons loaded with suffering men began to arrive after the battle 
of Germantown. How many of these had to continue their wretched 
journey farther to Easton at that time does not appear. Some were 
so near their end that they could not be taken any farther. In the 
tents behind the Brethren's House, where many had been placed for 
whom there was declared to be no room in the house, some of these 
newly-arrived ones were laid upon the ground in the rain to die. 
Seventy were conveyed, on November 3, to the Geissinger farm, up 
the river. And yet, owing apparently to a lack of proper under- 
standing and arrangement, those who were sending the sick to 
interior hospital points continued to pour them into Bethlehem, 
where, even if every house in the village had been turned into a 
hospital, the lack of provision for their care and treatment in other 
respects would have subjected them to almost the same degree of 
privation as right on the field of battle. ^° 

16 November 12, 1777, Dr. Shippen wrote to Congress: "The pressing necessity of the 
Hospitals which begin to feel the effects of cold and dirt (I foretold in my List to the 



1772 1778- 475 

When the rainy weather came on, which continued a week, at the 
end of October, a hundred who had been lying in tents were crowded 
into the garret of the house in order to leave the kitchen available 
for other use. A frame building was ordered to be erected in the 
rear garden, to relieve the congestion. Dr. Benjamin Rush, Surgeon 
and Physician General, who had sent instructions to provide accom- 
modations for an additional hundred, after the battle of German- 
town, arrived in Bethlehem on November 3, and it was at his sug- 
gestion apparently that the seventy were conveyed to the Geissinger 
farm. And still they came during December. On the 15th, "many 
sick from Buckingham meeting," says the Bethlehem diarist, were 
taken through the place, but to what point is not stated. Again on 
the 27th, "came fifty wagons with sick from Princeton." On the 
28th, seven hundred were crowded into the Brethren's House alone. 
Its capacity had been estimated, on the basis of humane and orderly 
attention, at two hundred, by the physicians. In addition to this 
there were a number of sick officers in other buildings and a number 
of cases among the guards stationed yet near the saw-mill on the 
Sand Island. There were more sick distributed at other places in 
Bethlehem than has commonly been supposed by those who have 
studied and written on the subject. No wonder that some of the 
physicians, in their desperation, urged the extension of the hospital 
to the Widows' House, in spite of the Congressional order for its 
protection, for they thought the widows covild crowd into the Sisters' 
House. 

One of the sick officers at Bethlehem, Col. Joseph Wood, of 
Virginia, who at the end of November had succeeded Col. William 
Polk, of North Carolina, in command of the guard at the place, and 
who when taken sick was quartered, part of the time, in the room 
of the Boeckel house which LaFayette had occupied, left on January 
4, 1778. He had, as it seems, added his testimony to convince those 
at a distance who were responsible for this over-crowding, that, on 
the one hand, the condition of things in the hospital was frightful and 
that, on the other hand, to compel the people at Bethlehem to vacate 
any more buildings would be ruthless oppression, when there were 
many other places, at which the sick could be distributed. While 

Medical Committee) calls on me to address you in a serious manner and urge you to furnish 
us with immediate supply of clothing requisite for the very existence of the sick now in the 
greatest distress in the Hospitals, and indispensably necessary to enable many who are now 
well, and detained solely for want of clothing, to return to the field." 



476 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

this officer, wlio is referred to as a fine man, was lying sick at Beth- 
lehem, the inevitable consequence of the state of things came in 
ghastly shape. The Brethren's House, especially the crowded and 
unventilated attic-floor, had become a reeking hole of indescribable 
filth. The intolerable stench polluted the air to some distance 
around it. A malignant putrid fever broke out and spread its 
contagion from ward to ward. The physicians were helpless and 
the situation became demoralized. Men died at the rate of five, 
six and even a dozen during one day or night. The carpenters and 
laborers of Bethlehem were not asked to make coffins and help bury 
the dead, as in the previous winter. This was now done by the 
soldiers, as quickly and secretly as possible. At last no coffins were 
made. Now and then, at dawn of day, a cart piled full of dead bodies 
would be seen hurrying away from the door of the hospital to the 
trenches on the hill-side across the Monocacy. Statistics of the 
mortality were not procurable. Unnamed and unnumbered they were 
laid, side by side, in those trenches. 

The plague spread out of the building into the town, among 
the single men first — some of whom had come into contact 
with the infected building — and then among some others. Even 
a girl in the boarding-school who had been sent to Bethlehem 
from Philadelphia for safety, Hannah Dean, was taken down with it 
and died. It carried of¥ seven of the single men in a short time. One 
of these was Ettwein's estimable son, John, nineteen years of age, 
who had been risking his life in helping the hospital nurses amid the 
misery, and on December 31, passed away under the last blessing of 
his grief-stricken father. The latter had been fearlessly moving about 
in that hot-bed of contagion, penetrating to every dark and suffo- 
cating corner of the noisome attic, bravely assisted by the Rev. Jacob 
Friis, who was serving as one of the chaplains of the single men. 
They did what they could to minister the consolations of religion 
under the awful conditions. Time and again, at all hours of the day 
and night, Ettwein responded to a sudden summons in behalf of 
some poor fellow lying gasping on his bed of filthy straw, whose soul 
)rearned for a word of comfort or peace or for the sound of prayer. 
In his records of those awful months, Ettwein mentions five particu- 
lar cases of death, and of these he gives the names of only four. The 
first was Robert Lepus, who he says was a member of the Church of 
England. He died, November 4, 1777. The next was one of the 
hospital physicians, Dr. Aquila Wilmot, from Maryland. He died. 



1772 17/8. 477 

November ii. At his earnest wish and at the request of his col- 
leagues, he was interred in the Bethlehem cemetery. With this inter- 
ment, says Ettwein, the row for strangers, which it had long been 
had in mind to open in the cemetery, was commenced.^' The third 
was the hospital steward, Robert Gillespie, a Presbyterian from 
County Carlow, Ireland, a widower about forty years old, who was 
much affected by the scene at the death-bed of Lepus and then, the 
same day, was taken down with the fever and died, November 14. 
He was also buried in the new "strangers' row." The next was a 
Narragansett Indian connected with the Continental service, who 
died, November 25, a baptized man and, as he stated, a backslidden 
believer. He had called for Ettwein in much distress of soul. His 
name is not given. On December 11, Richard Thompson, a Virginia 
soldier, passed away, believing and in peace. The sixth, who died 
January 3, 1778, was James Chaffs, of Drumargan, Ireland, who, as 
Ettwein discovered, had once served as cook for an establishment 
of single men of the Moravian Church in Europe, had subsequently 
been mentally deranged, had then wandered about as a straying 
sheep, and now, under such strange and melancholy circumstances, 
ended his days in a Moravian Single Brethren's House in America, 
after all his aberrations. One more mentioned was Lucas Sherman, 
a Virginian, who died, January 4. Only these are mentioned by 
name among all the victims of those months ; more than three hun- 
dred, Ettwein estimated — and no one was better able to judge, out- 
side of those who buried the dead. Only these and three of the pre- 
vious year out of a total of about five hundred ! Only thirteen pri- 
vates, a corporal, a hospital physician and a hospital steward known 
by name out of a full thousand Continental troops who were patients 



17 From this time dates the use of the term "Strangers' Row" — Fremden Reihe — as 
applied to the row of graves near the Marlset Street line of the old cemetery. While the 
term suggests a harsh discrimination, its real intent was the reverse. It originated in a 
relaxation of the previous more rigid regulation which permitted only members to be interred 
there, and left others who died at Bethlehem, to be buried in the grave-yard on the south 
side, or quite outside of consecrated ground, which in those days was far more common 
about the country than is probably supposed by many. It is erroneous to think that such a 
special strangers' row remained to the end a feature of that cemetery. Persons who were 
not Moravians and have been given burial there by special arrangement, have been interred 
among the other graves since the last of the 31 graves was made in that row about fifty 
years ago. 



478 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



^'-/'■^^i, a-^fii '^■^t^ /^a-y -c/ /«^<-' /■A^-'^^-e -^ 



REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER OF GEN. WASHINGTON TO BISHOP ETTWEIN, 
MARCH 28, 1778, WRITTEN BY JOS. REED, SEC, SIGNED BY WASHINGTON. 



1772 1778. 479 

in that hospital during the two periods !^^ In the unmarked rows 
on that hillside the dust of those hundreds who sacrificed their lives 
on the altar of the young Nation mouldered forgotten, until a town 
began to occupy the fields in which the plow-share had long turned 
the soil over their graves, and men, in digging deeper to build houses, 
came upon the residue of their bones. A modest stone inscribed 
with a brief story of the historic spot reminds the passer-by, since the 
year of Bethlehem's sesqui-centennial, that it should be set apart as 
hol_v ground. Perhaps, before a full hundred and fifty years will have 
passed since those graves were dug, a sightly monument to the mem- 
ory of those unnamed dead will have taken the place of the little 
marker, with the space about it that has not yet been invaded b}^ the 
pick and mattock, left sacred for the grass to grow and the flowers 
to bloom over their resting-places, no more to be disturbed. 

As the first dreary months of 1778 wore on, the appalling mor- 
tality decreased. The epidemic spent itself and men began to 
recover. On March 22, definite information was received that the 
hospital was to be removed. While this naturally caused much satis- 
faction, the report that Lititz was to be taken possession of, caused, 
on the other hand, grave anxiety and led to an attempt to prevent 
this ; but circumstances were thought by those in authority to make 
it imperative, and it had to be submitted to. As for Bethlehem, the 
prospect of the removal of the hospital included the removal of all 
soldiers and of various trying things that had to be experienced while 
they were at the place. Disorders and petty depredations could not 
be entirely restrained. Thus, on March 6, it is recorded that some 
of the guard even broke into the hospital stores, and on March 17, 
some, in celebrating St. Patrick's Day, in a manner not much to the 
honor of the Apostle of Ireland, occasioned a riot that at first threat- 
ened to have very bad consequences, but the worst damage wrought 
was that which the revelers finally inflicted upon each other. Another 
kind of an incident reveals also that occasional^ unwarrantable 
authoritv was assumed by some officers, and shows the spirit of 

18 In aa article on " the Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution," com- 
piled by John W. Jordan, from the Moravian records and all other accessible sources of 
possible information, including the archives of the United States Government, and published, 
in 1896, in the Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XX, a list of thirteen names is given as 
the result of all search. To this list one Nathaniel McNee, is to be added. Of these 
fourteen soldiers the names of six who died are known only from the Moravian records. 
Perhaps official lists were preserved by the Government and were destroyed at Washington 
by fire in 1814. 





i 






nil I 



1772 1778. 48i 

Ettwein, who did not fear to resist what was clearly an assumption 
that could not be sustained. Some of the hospital physicians had 
their mess-room, during the winter, in the residence part of the full- 
ing-mill, leaving very contracted quarters for the master-fuller, 
James Hall, and his wife. In that part of the building Dr. Moses 
Scott, of the hospital staff, with the aid of John Okely, had secured 
lodging also for a certain invalid civilian, William Carr, and his wife, 
of Philadelphia. Carr eventually died and was buried in the "stran- 
ger's row." The reason for the interest taken in them by the mili- 
tary officers at Bethlehem does not appear. The wife of Hall, the 
fuller, was taken seriously ill; the room occupied by the Carrs was 
sorely needed, and they were asked to vacate. Carr appealed to Dr. 
Samuel Finley and he to Col. John Cropper, who had succeeded Col. 
Wood in command at Bethlehem. Col. Cropper issued instructions 
that Carr was not to be removed until he gave orders. Ettwein's spirit 
was stirred within him by this arbitrary attempt to exercise jurisdic- 
tion over Bethlehem property, not under military control, and denied 
the Colonel's right to issue such orders, declaring that the room was 
needed and Carr — for he did not belong to the army — must move at 
once. The result was that he was taken into the hospital by the doc- 
tors.^" Perhaps, in taking this peremptory stand and manifesting 

19 An interesting souvenir of the case has survived among documents of that time in the 
Bethlehem archives, in the actual written communications that passed, all on one small sheet 
of paper that did service for the three parties to the correspondence. The notes — original 
autograph — on this sheet are as follows : 

(1) Sir : The bearer, IMr. Carr, is in possession of a Part of a House near the Fulling 
Mill, the owner of which wants him put out. He has applied to me for leave to stay until 
he is sufficiently well to shift for himself, as he is to all Intents and purposes an invalid. I 
have told him it was not in my power to do anything in his favour. He then desired me to 
write to you for advice and assistance, for if he is turned out he has no chance for having 
his cure completed. 

I am with respect 

your very Irumble serv't, 
Bethlehem, Jan. 6, 1778. S.\muel Finley. 

Col. Cropper. 

(2) " In complyance with the request afs'd, these do certify that Mr. Carr is not to be 
moved until my orders. Given under my hand at Bethlehem 5th Janu. 

John Cropper 

Lieut. Col." 

(3) '' Col, Cropper has none to command in Bethlehem but his soldiers. Therefore we 
cannot receive his orders Mr, Carr does not belong to the Hospital : we want the place 
where he is, and he must move without delay, John Ettwein." 

(4) At the bottom of the sheet in Ettwein's handwriting : " N,B, Was directly fetched 
away by Mr, Finley into the Hospital.' 

32 



482 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

little sympath)' for the Carrs, Ettwein acted on knowledge of circum- 
stances connected with their being there which caused the Colonel 
and the doctors to recede, and that are not alluded to in the 
reference to the incident, in the records, for all kinds of people were 
then in Bethlehem. 

The preparations for the removal of the hospital advanced slowly, 
but, at last, early in April, 1778, the welcome word came that now it 
would take place without further delay. General Lachlin Mcintosh, a 
Georgia officer, was commissioned to superintend the transfer. He 
arrived in Bethlehem just before Palm Sunday, April 12, for this pur- 
pose. It is recorded that he and sundry other officers attended the 
services on that day. The removal of the remaining sick began at 
once, and on Tuesday of the Passion Week, April 14, the last of the 
invalids was taken away. The building which had harbored so much 
suffering, wretchedness and squalor was closed and left standing, 
gloomy and silent, in battered, feculent desolation, until June i, when 
the army authorities released it back to its owners. Then much time 
and labor, and considerable money were expended, to make the 
premises habitable again. The actual expenses thus incurred made 
up the bill of damages presented to the Government and paid.-" The 

2o The memorial presented to the Continental Congress in behalf of John Bonn, Warden, 
by his attorney, Lewis Weiss, Esq., of Philadelphia, October 23, 1779, with the vouchers 
showing the items of expense, is yet in existence. The petition was read in Congress> 
October 26, and referred to the Board of Treasury and, November 6, it was passed over to 
the Chamber of Accounts, with directions to adjust the accounts and report. The petition 
draws attention to the fact that no claim for rent and no damages incurred by the 115 single 
men through the long stoppage of the various trades carried on in their house, was included 
in the accounts. These, as summarized, were the following : 

£ s. d. 

J. C. Pyrlaeus, painting and glazing 18S 15 6 

I-I. Gerstberger, mason worli and whitewashing. . . 76 5 

J. Y. Gebes, scraping and scavenging 45 

John Thomas, joiner work ... 21 

George Schindler, carpenter work 6 7 6 

Anton Schmidt, locksmith work 9 

Ludwig Huebener, potter, 8 new tile stoves 12 

Total in Penna. currency, 35S 8 o 

The entire amount of war-claims known to have been presented by Bethlehem amounted 
to about ;^i75o Pa> The main items of other accounts were 17000 fence rails, 200 posts, 
594J cords of fire-wood, 22 acres of buckwheat, some corn, hay, flax and other farm pro- 
ducts used by the army or destroyed. It would be interesting if the large sums paid out in 
militia fines and for substitutes could be definitely ascertained. They would be so much 
that these damages would seem a trifle by comparison. 



1772 1778. 483 

final cleansing of the house, after the repairs were finished, took place 
June 16 and 17. On June 27, the single men moved back into their 
house and, the next day, a service of thanksgiving and re-dedication 
was held. Then, gradually, the various trades were resumed and 
the building was restored to its former character, as nearly as the 
circumstances of the time permitted. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Through the Revolution to Another Re-organization. 
1778-1785- 

The removal of the Continental Hospital in April, 1778, ended the 
period of greatest turmoil at Bethlehem. After that the village wit- 
nessed less of the parade as well as of the misery of war than during 
the preceding two years. Troops continued to pass through, from 
time to time, for several more years, but not in such large numbers, 
as before, and the danger of being overwhelmed by a turbulent 
in-rush gradually diminished. Once more a sensation was caused by 
rumors of an intended winter cantonment of troops in the vicinity 
and of another quartering of British prisoners of war upon the place, 
but neither of these things came to pass ; and the theater of opera- 
tions did not again shift in such directions that there ever appeared 
any likelihood that the Forks of the Delaware might become a battle- 
field or be laid waste by the enemy in either a general advance or 
retreat. 

Throughout the entire year 1778, however, Bethlehem continued to 
be frequently visited by persons conspicuous in the scenes of the 
time, both in military and civil office, and by distinguished foreigners, 
in official position as well as tourists and adventurers. Thus in Jan- 
uary, and again in May, General Gates and his wife spent a few days 
at the place, accompanied the second time by the famous Col. Ethan 
Allen, who had just returned from his English captivity and whose 
niece, Anna Allen, was subsequently a pupil in the boarding-school 
and died at Bethlehem in 1795. In January one of the visitors was 
the amiable and much-admired wife of General Green, whose two 
daughters were also placed in the Bethlehem school, in 1789. In 
February mention is made of the presence of General Thomas Con- 
way, notorious as the leader of the plot, with Gates and others, to 
displace General Washington at a time when the Congress was most 
discordant, demoralized and weak. General Edward Hand was also 
a visitor in that month and received the thanks of the Moravian 

484 



17/8 1785- 48s 

authorities for kind assistance given the missionaries in connection 
with their work in Ohio. Another guest at that time was the Ger- 
man General Frederick von Steuben, whose services were of much 
value to Washington. Besides tliese military oiificers, various promi- 
nent members of Congress and other men of importance enjoyed a 
sojourn of a few days at Bethlehem, from April to July. One of 
these was Chancellor Robert Livingstone, who on that occasion 
offered the Executive Board at Bethlehem five thousand acres of 
land to open a Moravian settlement on the Upper Delaware ; a 
renewal of the former project in Ulster County, which had fallen 
through. 

Others specially mentioned were Samuel Adams and John Han- 
cock again, and Governor Morris. With the name of the latter, gos- 
sip had associated a published address to the "Quakers and Bethle- 
hemites," says the diarist, and adds that this was the first time they 
had been publicly so styled and distinctly classed with the Tories. 
It would have enhanced the picturesque confusion of ideas about the 
Brethren if some romancer had given them that title after the hos- 
pital epoch opened at Bethlehem, and sprung the theory that now 
the problem of their origin and character had been solved in the 
supposition that they were an ofifshoot of the Franciscan Father 
deBethencourt's Hospital Order of the previous century, given that 
name with its insignia bearing a picture of the Nativity at Bethle- 
hem. It would have afforded a yet wider range for the imagination 
that has produced so many wonderful modern stories about the 
Moravians. It would also have apparently vindicated the conclusion 
of those early north Hibernian settlers in the Forks, that they were 
Papists because they celebrated Christmas in a religious manner and 
even according to the new calendar. Such a theory about the "Beth- 
lehemites" would, moreover, have harmonized with that ideal of the 
Sisters' House of Bethlehem, under the erroneous impression that 
it was a convent, which, nearly forty years later, was put into beauti- 
ful verse by the beloved American poet Longfellow, while a youth of 
eighteen years, when his fancy was stirred by reading an incident 
associated with the presence in Bethlehem of another gallant foreign 
officer whose career in the American Revolution enters into the 
poetry of the sublime struggle, and around whose sojourn in the 
Moravian town a yet more romantic glamour has been cast than 
about that of LaFayette. On the afternoon of Maundy Thursday, 
April 16, in the spring of 1778, Count Casimir Pulaski came into 
the church where the congregation was assembled to hear the read- 



486 A HlSTORir OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ing of the second lesson of the day, the scene in Gethsemane. He 
was accompanied by "the well-known Col. Kobatsch." The latter is 
mentioned in the diary, January 24, as "a Prussian officer of Hussars 
who had long been living in retirement," but at that time was endeav- 
oring to raise and equip a troop for the Continental service and hoped 
to negotiate with the saddlers, glovers, founders, and other artisans 
of Bethlehem, to furnish him the necessary accoutrements, but found 
that in consequence of the lack of materials at the time and the 
demoralization caused by the occupation of the Brethren's House by 
the hospital, they would not be able to do it. He is mentioned again 
on July 31, as passing through from Easton "en route for Baltimore" 
with his troopers, equipped and armed. ^ 

His connection with Pulaski seems to have commenced when the 
latter was, before this, preparing to recruit his legion, mainly, as 
some writers state, about Baltimore. On May 15, Pulaski is men- 
tioned again as coming to the church with some of his staff in stately 

I This name is found spelled Kowatz and Kowats in public documents of the time. The 
Moravian diarist, more familiar with the orthography of such East-Prussian and Polish 
names than American civil and military officers, who often quite changed their form, prob- 
ably spells it more correctly. 

So the name of Pulaski is spelled in the Moravian records Polasky and Pulawsky, either 
of which forms is probably more in accordance with the correct pronunciation and the 
original spelling than the current one. The pronunciation of these forms is somewhat as if 
spelled Pollotschky — like that of the more common modern name Palacky — or, the second, 
Pallofschky. When the Indian incursions in July, 1778, began to endanger the frontier of 
Northampton County, the Government of Pennsylvania, on consultation with the Board of 
War, appointed " Col. Kowatz " (Kobatsch) to guard the region, he having " under his 
command a small company of horse" at Easton. \Col. J?c'c.,X.l, 531.) Robert Levers, 
Esq., writing from Easton, August 25, 1778, to George Bryan, Vice-President of the Execu- 
tive Council, represents the appointment of Kobatsch as an *' unhappy choice " because he 
was " totally inadequate to the important task of conducting military operations in an 
Indian country or in a country into which the savages may make inroads and devastations, 
he being as perfectly unacquainted with the country liable to be exposed to Indian ravages, 
as he is to the nature of the Indian manner of fighting." He says, " Col. Kowats in the 
Legion to which he belongs and for the service it is immediately raised may doubtless dis- 
tinguish himself," but fears the people in the upper part of the Minnisinks " will soon feel 
a heavy blow from the enemy," and adds : '-That part of General Pulaski's Legion which 
remain with Col. Kowats at his headquarters at Fort Penn I humbly am of opinion cannot 
possibly render any service to the public in that very broken counti-y but by way of ex- 
presses, and this is needlessly distressing that unhappy country to a very great degree." 
Pa. Archives, VI, 719. From all this it appears that in July and August, Kobatsch, instead 
of having proceeded to Baltimore, commanded that detachment of Pulaski's cavalry which 
ranged and guarded the Minnisinks. 



1778 1785- 487 

procession to attend the English preaching. He was in Bethlehem 
again later, during the time when a detachment of his legion was 
assigned to duty in near-by parts of New Jersey, before he went south 
to join the campaign in Georgia. It is stated elsewhere that he had 
previously visited La Fayette while the latter was lying wounded at 
Bethlehem, but the records of the place do not menton him at that 
time. Several times when there appeared to be danger of unruly 
troops disturbing the seclusion of the Sisters' House, this chivalrous 
son of Poland detailed members of his staff to guard its doors. The 
meagre references to him in authentic original records are tantaliz- 
ing. He carried with him from Bethlehem a handsome silk guidon 
which fluttered from the upright lance at the head of his legion when 
he fell at Savannah in October, 1779. It was embroidered in the 
Sisters' House. Tradition has it that the banner was tendered him 
by the sisters in grateful recognition of his gallant concern for their 
protection. This, however, is nowhere stated. The probability is 
that when examining the fine specimens of embroidery and other 
fancy work in the Sisters' House — where at that time such work of 
a high order was produced in abundance — and making purchases, as 
many another officer did, he specially arranged with those in charge 
to have such a guidon made. So much of sentiment may have 
attached to the transaction that he fancied the idea of having a ban- 
ner that had been made at that place ; and it is not beyond the bounds 
of probability that this Polish patriot, said to have been a nephew of 
Polish royalty, may have had some knowledge of the old heroic his- 
tory of the Unitas Fratrum associated with former struggles of his 
fatherland, and was aware of the historic connection of the Brethren 
at Bethlehem with that ancient Church. Some such associations 
with the person of Pulaski may possibly also have entered the minds 
of the gentle women who designed and executed the work, and there 
is at least no evidence against the conjecture that, even if he asked 
to have it done for him and proposed to pay for the work, they may 
have declined the compensation and begged him to accept it as a 
token of appreciation in view of his manifest concern for their safety. 
The tradition that makes the idea to have originated with these sis- 
ters, credits Susan von Gersdorf, their Eldress or superintendent, 
with proposing it. Rebecca Langly, who had brought fine needle- 
work at Bethlehem to its highest point of excellence, is said to have 
designed the pattern. She was a young English woman of genteel 
breeding, good education and formerly opulent family. With the 



488 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

work of embroidering the pattern the names of her sister, Erdmuth 
Langly, Julia Bader, Anna Bknn, Anna Hussy, Maria Rosina Schultz 
and Anna Maria Weiss have all been associated. - 



= What is known about the banner is given in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revo- 
lution, from which all writers since have gotten their data, apart from what is stated above. 
Lossing says : " Pulaski visited La Fayette while that wounded officer was a recipient of the 
pious care and hospitality of the Moravians at Bethlehem. When it was known that the 
brave Pole was organizing a corps of cavalry in Baltimore, the single women of Bethlehem 
prepared a banner of crimson silk, with designs beautifully wrought with the needle by 
their own hands, and sent it to Pulaski with their blessing. This banner was used in the 
procession that welcomed La Fayette to Baltimore, 1824, and was then deposited in Peale's 
Museum. Mr. Edmund Peale presented it to the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, 
where it is now (1850) carefully preserved in a glass case." [It is still in the possession of 
that society.] " But little of its former beauty remains. On one side the capitals U. S. are 
encircled by the motto, ' Unitas Virtus foftior^, on the other, the all-seeing eye of God, in 
the midst of the thirteen stars of the Union, surrounded by the words, 'A'on alitts regit.' 
These designs are embroidered with yellow silk, the letters shaded with green. A deep- 
green bullion-fringe ornaments the edges. The size of the banner is twenty inches square. 
It was attached to a lance when borne to the field." Mr. Lossing gives a drawing of it. 
It is stated by other writers that when Pulaski fell in battle at Savannah, October II, 1779) 
the banner was rescued by his First Lieutenant and given to Captain Bantalon, who even- 
tu.illy took it with him to Baltimore. 

In reference to Longfellow's " Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem at the Conse- 
cration of Pulaski's Banner," written before he knew that the Moravian sisters were not 
nuns, and when he supposed the banner to have been a large flowing flag, there has been 
published the following note written by the poet, in reply to an inquiry addressed to him by 
Gen. W. E. Doster, of Bethlehem, when the latter was a student at Yale : 

Cambridge, January 13, 1857. 
" Dear Sir : 

The Hymn of the Moravian Nuns was written in 1825 and was suggested to me 
by a paragraph in the jVorth American Review, Vol. II, p. 390, 'The standard of Count 
Pulaski, the noble Pole who fell in the attack on Savannah during the American Revolution, 
was of crimson silk, embroidered by the Moravian nuns of Bethlehem, Pa.' The banner is 
still preserved; you will find a complete account of the matter in Lossing's Field-Book of 
the Revolution. The last line is figurative. I suppose (in the poem) the banner to have 
been wrapped about the body, as is frequently done. Truly yours, 

Henry W. Longfellow." 

There is an accurate pictorial representation of the banner in colors, reduced size, in the 
Moravian archives at Bethlehem. A reproduction of it was canied, for the first time, at the 
head of the procession, followed by numerous historic flags and banners, by the Pennsyl- 
vania Society of the Sons of the Revolution at the unveiling, June 19, 1897 — anniversary 
of the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British in 1778 — of the bronze tablet placed by 
them on the front of " Colonial Hall " — the old Brethren's House — of the Seminary for 
Young Ladies, at Bethlehem, to commemorate its use as a general hospital by the Conti- 
nental army, 1776 to 1778. 



1778 1785- 489 

In Februar}- of that year the diarist mentions a visit by the French 
litterateur Mons. de La Balm, who was collecting material for writ- 
ing American histor}^ He made particular inquiry into the teach- 
ing, principles and institutions of the Moravian Brethren and the 
organization and establishments of Bethlehem, with which he was 
much pleased. His frequent response to statements and explana- 
tions was simply "boni" Early in October, another foreign General 
in the continental service is mentioned as a visitor, the Chevalier de 
La Neuville, Army Inspector under General Gates. But more inter- 
est and importance was attached to the arrival, on November 25, 
of the first accredited Minister Plenipotentiary from France to the 
United States, the Chevalier Conrad Alexandre Gerard. He had 
arrived at Philadelphia, July 8, with the French fleet under Count 
d'Estaing. Silas Deane, who with Arthur Lee had been engaged 
with Dr. Franklin in securing the important treaty of February 6, 
between France and the United States, which was a turning point in 
the fortunes of the Revolution, and who had also arrived from 
France with that fleet, accompanied the Ambassador to Bethlehem. 
With them came also that courtly-mannered Spaniard, Don Juan 
de Miralles, unofificially representing his nation, which was then 
assuming an uncertain position towards the American cause. He 
was commissioned by the Governor of Havana to gather information 
and impressions, in order, as was supposed, to help the home gov- 
ernment to conclusions. Congress, although apparentl}' a little 
dubious, felt constrained to show him all honor that was safe, and 
to make favorable impressions upon him in every way. This desire, 
with that of showing every possible distinction to the representative 
of the young Nation's new-made ally, who himself had taken a lead- 
ing part in shaping the treaty and had officially signed it, caused 
men at the head of affairs to take special pains to impress upon the 
Bethlehem authorities the importance of these persons and the 
desirability of treating them with marked respect. It was wished 
that they should appreciate all this and act accordingly, so that the 
visits of these men to this conspicuous and famous inland settlement, 
ill-spoken of by some minor public men, might be properly enjoyed. 
The letter written by Henry Laurens, President of Congress, to 
Ettwein, announcing them, reveals this desire.^ 



3 " My Dear Friend, 

Mons'r Gerard, the Minister Plenipotentiary of France will be, provided he meets no 
obstruction on the Road, at Bethlehem on Wednesday the 25th inst about midday. This 



490 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

That the French minister enjoyed his stay of three days and found 
the place and its institutions, and the neighborhood generally, inter- 
esting, was strongly testified, and was confirmed by the fact that he 
made another visit in June, 1779. Meanwhile, on January 5 of the 
last mentioned year, another party of a different kind, but of some 
note, arrived at Bethlehem, followed at intervals, on to the end of 
the month, by others on like footing. These were paroled officers 
of the British army captured at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, mostly 
of the Brunswick corps. On the 5th came General Frederick Adolph 
Riedesel, with his noble and devoted wife, who was sharing all the 
vicissitudes of camp and march and battle-field with him, and their 
three children, accompanied by their regimental chaplain, John August 
Milius. Madam Riedesel brought a letter of introduction from Gen- 
eral Gates, then inactive at Boston.* The)' were followed on the nth 
by General William Phillips, Burgoyne's famous artillery commander, 
who has been praised as a "brave and honorable soldier," and on the 
other hand criticised for "haughtiness and irritability." He was 
accompanied by several subordinates. Both the amiable and the 

worthy character merits regard from all the citizens of these states, an acquaintance with 
him will afford you satisfaction, and I am persuaded his Visit will work no evil or incon- 
venience to your Community. Don Juan de Miralles a Spanish Gentleman highly recom- 
mended by the Governor of Havana will accompany Mr. Gerard. The whole suite may 
amount to six Gentlemen and perhaps a servant to each. I give this previous intimation in 
order that preparations suitable to the occasion may be made by Mr. Johnson (Jost Jansen) 
at the tavern and otherwise as you think expedient. My good wishes attend you all." 
(Then a few lines about other matters.) 

" Believe me Dear Sir to be with sincere respect and very great affection. 

Your friend and most humble servant, 

Philadelphia 23 Novem. 1778. Henry Laurens." 

Boston, Novemb'r 177^'. 
4 " Dear Sir, 

This letter will be delivered to you by Madame Riedesel, the Lady of Major 
General Riedesel, to whom I entreat you will show every mark of Civility and Respect in 
your Power. Wise reasons have determined Congress to direct the march of the .■\rmy under 
the Convention of Saratoga to Charlottsville, in Virginia. General Riedesel, his Lady and 
little Family, accompany the troops of their Prince. It is a painful and fatiguing journey at 
this season of the Year. I doubt not your Hospitable Disposition will render it as pleasant 
as possible, and that without my Recommendations, you naturally would indulge the senti- 
ments which influence the Gentleman and the Citizen of the World 

I am Dear Sir 

Your affectionate 
Rev. Mr. Ettwein Humble Servant, 

of Bethlehem Penna. PIoR,\.Tio Gates." 



17/8 i/Ss. 



491 



^^tO'l l/i^ 



'^^l^>^. iTTff 



\.^^p[a/i,(yU ^-m^ y^^fpTi'iy ^^i/yi^Pioc- ■^Hc^ryi.'-e^nJi'en 9^ 






492 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

harsh sides of his character are revealed by incidents of this time. His 
heart was so won by the Httle girls in the boarding-school at Beth- 
lehem that he dealt out five guineas in solid gold to them as a present. 
On the other hand, after the second stay of the party at Bethlehem, 
when they had to turn back for a third sojourn because negotiations 
for their exchange were suddenly interrupted, he had to be reproved 
by Madam Riedesel for the indiscreet rage to which he gave expres- 
sion amid dangerous surroundings. Then, on January 26,anq the 
following days, came a body of Brunswick officers of General 
Riedesel's corps and were furnished lodgings at the request of Quar- 
termaster Robert Lettis Hooper. The diarist of Bethlehem mentions 
by name Major Just von Maibaum, Captain August Frederick 
Dommes, Captain Schlagenteufel, Lieutenants Vreda, Meyer, Bach, 
Goedecke, two young gentlemen, von Rantzau and von Boenicke, 
Captains of Horse, Stutzer and Schlagentruft and Chaplain Melz- 
heimer. They had several musicians with them and, not only 
engaged in much diversion among themselves, but gave the villagers 
the benefit of frequent serenades in appreciation of the comfortable 
and agreeable .situation into which the fortunes of war brought them 
as prisoners. On the other hand, they, as typical Germans, did not 
cast away the religious traditions of their fatherland. By courtesy of 
the authorities, their chaplain conducted a service and preached a 
sermon for them in the chapel of the Brethren's House on Easter 
Sunday. They had also attended the services of the congregation 
on Palm Sunday and taken Communion during Holy Week. A little 
romance was also associated with their sojourn at Bethlehem, in that, 
on May lo, their Chaplain, Milzheimer, became the husband of one 
of the Bethlehem maidens. ° 

The middle of May, these paroled Brunswick officers left for Lan- 
caster. The end of November, 1780, certain of them came to Beth- 
lehem again from Reading and on December i, finally left for New 
York. General Riedesel and his party, after a stay of only two days, 
started for Virginia, followed, on January 22, by General Phillips and 
other officers. On September 25 and 26, they were back in Bethlehem 

5 He married Agnes Mau, a daughter of Samuel Mau, whom the Brethren at Bethlehem in 
1742 released from service as a Redemptioner. Her mother was Anna Catherine Kremper, 
who in 1742 came to Bethlehem from Souih Carolina with Abraham Bueninger. Another 
daughter became the wife of David Bischoff, of Bethlehem, in 17S1. Some of the Bruns- 
wicl<ers, among them probably the chaplain, had their quarters at the home of this family. 
Remote family connections not expected, might be traced back to this marriage link, welded 
under such peculiar circumstances. 



17/8 1/85 493 

again on their way to New York, expecting to be exchanged. Pro- 
ceeding on their journey, they were stopped at Elizabethtown by 
orders stating that Congress had not confirmed the proposed terms 
of exchange. On October lo they once more came to Bethlehem 
and remained until November 22, 1779, when they again left and 
finall}' got to New York. In connection with the sojourn of this 
party at Bethlehem, the Moravians again had to pay the penalty of 
being written about and having their institutions and arrangements 
described as the several writers understood and viewed them, or were 
disposed to represent them.^ 



6 The memoirs and letters of General and Madam Riedese! are well known and the 
passages relating to Bethlehem have been often quoted. Their statements about things are, 
in the main, more correct than those of many other writers, and the spirit of their reminis- 
cences is prevailingly a kindly and appreciative one. Madam Riedesel, however, must have 
received some singular information, not from Moravian sources, which led her to state, in 
referring to the " well cultivated section inhabited by the Moravian Brethren," that "one 
place is called the Holy Sepulchre and another district goes by the name of Holy Land in 
which is a town called Bethlehem." Not fully realizing the enormous prices to which all 
commodities had risen, she thought they were exorbitantly charged at the Sun Tnn. Treat- 
ing of their last sojourn when they had to turn back from Elizabethtown in October, 1779, 
she says: "We now returned to Bethlehem where my husband and General Phillips were 
allowed by the Americans to remain until the particulars of the exchange, which was yet 
unfinished should be settled ; and as our former landlord at this place had treated us with 
kind hospitality, we, all of us, remained to board with him — sixteen persons and four house 
servants, the latter receiving money to pay their board, also about twenty horses. Our host 
would make with us no definite agreement (probably on account of fluctuating finances) 
about the price, and as none of us had any money, this was very convenient, as he would 
cheerfully wait for his pay until we received some. We supposed him to be an honest and 
reasonable man, and the more so as he belonged to the Community of Moravian Brethren, 
and the Inn was one patronized by that Society. But how great was our surprise when 
after a residence of six weeks, and just as we had received permission to go to New York, 
we were served with a bill of ^32,000, that is to say American paper money, which is about 
400 guineas in actual money. Had it not been for a royalist who just at this time happened 
to pass through the village seeking the purchase of hard money at any price, we should have 
been placed in the greatest embarrassment and would not have been able by any possibility 
to leave the town." (16 persons and 20 horses 6 weeks, furnished the best to be had, for 
400 guineas, was a little over §3.25 per day for man and beast, which was reasonable as 
prices then ran.) Madam Riedesel says that in the Sisters' House at Bethlehem " they 
made magnificent embroidery and other beautiful handiwork," and that they purchased 
various articles. She refers to the numerous manufactures, a leather dresser who produced 
work "as good as that of England and half as cheap," states that the gentlemen of the 
party bought a quantity, and speaks of the good cabinet-makers and workers in metal. She 
says, " while at Bethlehem we often went to church and enjoyed the splendid singing. The 
wife of the minister died while we were there (wife of the Rev. Paul Muenster). We saw 



494 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

It is surprising that Jest Jansen, the Bethlehem host, was able to 
keep the hotel up to the standard commonly described by guests, 
and to so frequently entertain persons of quality in a fitting manner, 
in view of the scarcity and high price of so many articles that were 
constantly required. References are made in the records occasionally 
to the deplorable condition of public finances and to the market 
prices. In July, 1778, wagon-master Beitel, who had conveyed a load 
of sugar from Boston to Philadelphia, brought to Bethlehem from the 
latter city twenty-six gallons of Communion wine for which he paid 
£125. January 11, 1779, flour was quoted at $20 per cwt. January 
18, two paroled British officers, a quartermaster and a paymaster, 
who had spent ten days in Bethlehem, are reported to have sold from 
four to five hundred guineas at $35 Continental currency per guinea. 
Before the close of 1779, one dollar in specie was worth thirty-seven 
dollars in paper. On October 8, it is recorded that several men 
returning from Philadelphia reported the following prices in the city : 
Flour, £60 Pa. per cwt. ; Tenerifife wine, £20 per gallon ; tea, £17 per 
pound ; salt, £80-90 per bushel ; "a silk neck-cloth that formerly cost 
six shillings," $100. It took £120 to purchase One Half Joe, i. e., 40 
to I. (In 1784 this coin could again be had for £3 Pa.) It might 
have been expected that the rates at the inn for guests who wanted 
whatever was to be had at any price, would have been higher than 
those that astonished Madam Riedesel. 

On June 15, 1779, a flutter of excitement was occasioned by the 
arrival at this famous hostelry, of a body of more than twenty Amer- 
ican officers from Easton, not worn and weary, nor with uniforms 

her laid out in a separate enclosure with bars, waiting for burial ; for here they never keep a 
dead body in the house." 

Another account of Bethlehem at that time which found its way into print and has occa- 
sionally been reproduced, is that of Lieutenant Anbury who was at the place when Gen. 
Phillips and his company tarried the first time in 177S. He praises the tavern highly, like 
all who laid chief stress on good living, and refers to General Phillips as being so delighted 
with it that the good accommodations caused him to turn back to Bethlehem when not per- 
mitted to go on to New York. He speaks of the fancy and ornamental work and the 
numerous musical instruments in the Sisters' House. He says, "the women dine in a large 
hall in which is a handsome organ and the walls are adorned with Scripture pieces painted 
by some of the women who formerly belonged to the Society. This hall answers the pur- 
pose of a refectory and chapel, but on Sundays they attend worship in the great church 
(Old Chapel), which is a neat and simple building." Some of his remarks about the life of 
the place are singular, and those about the manner of arranging marriages belong to the 
canards with which so many have been imposed upon who have innocently taken the state- 
ments as true. 



1778 1785- 495 

dust-covered and torn, from the field of battle or from a long journey 
through the country, but, no doubt, attired in their newest and finest, 
and assuming all the pomp and circumstance they could muster. 
They were gallantly escorting to Bethlehem a plainly dressed and 
unpretentious but more illustrious lady than any who had yet been 
a guest at the place. It was the wife of General Washington on her 
way to Virginia. She had passed the previous months at the Middle- 
brook Camp, where the Commander-in-Chief had sojourned during 
the winter, with his headquarters in the "Wallace House"' in Som- 
erset County, New Jersey, where now the town of Summerville is. 
That famous winter camp was breaking up. Washington set out 
for West Point on June 14, and his wife started with an escort for 
her home. Where she passed the night of the 14th does not appear. 
General William Maxwell, with his staff, was honored by being her 
special escort. They were joined at Easton by General John Sullivan 
and General Enoch Poor. She was escorted about Bethlehem to see 
everything that interested her, and was present with her attendants 
at the evening service when Ettwein discoursed in English and the 
choir and orchestra furnished their best music. The diarist records 
that the next morning Lady Washington, well-pleased with her visit, 
left for Virginia. The previous evening all of the officers, excepting 
those who were to accompany her on the remainder of her journey, 
returned to Easton. 

General SulHvan had his temporary headquarters there, preparing 
for his famous autumn campaign against the Indians in Wyoming 
and beyond into New York, who, at the instigation of British emis- 
saries and with the assistance of base and ruthless Tories, had, the 
previous year, commenced their barbarities in those regions. During 
July, 1778, Bethlehem had been reminded of the former Indian wars 
by the down-rush of terror-stricken refugees from beyond the Blue 
Mountains, when a general raid was expected. On July 9, the Rev. 
Edward Thorpe, the Moravian minister at Gnadenhuetten on the 
Mahoning, wrote that about three hundred refugees, mostly widows 
and orphans, had come to his place well nigh famished and almost 
naked, and on July 11, the Bethlehem diarist records "about four 
hundred New England men" reported massacred. From the 15th to 
the 17th, many refugees from Shamokin and along the west branch 
of the Susquehanna passed through, empty and destitute, on their 
way to their former homes in New Jersey and New York ; having 

7 Andrew G. MeUick Jr. — The Story of an OU Farm, p. 455. 



490 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

abandoned their crops and lost all that they had. One woman from 
the Long Island in the Susquehannah reported that the Indian 
Renatus, whose sensational arrest and trial as an alleged accomplice 
in the murder at Stenton's tavern in 1764, has been treated of in 
a previous chapter, had spent the preceding winter with his wife 
and two children at her place of residence and had behaved very 
decorously; and that suddenly in the spring he and his whole family 
had been killed by persons unknown. The attitude of the Indians 
who had now been inveigled into these outrages to harass the 
colonies was such that no word deprecating the most drastic 
measures against them appears in the Moravian records. It was 
felt that the condign punishment meted out to them by General 
Sullivan in the autumn of 1779, was deserved and was an awful 
necessity. It is rather remarkable that at this time the usual story 
that the Indians were supplied with ammunition by the Moravians to 
commit murder with, does not seem to have been started. Perhaps 
the kind of men who had on former occasions circulated this favorite 
tale, were at this time finding other ways of worrying them more 
interesting. Some of these presented themselves in connection with 
the application of sundry stringent, but crude and, in some cases, 
impracticable acts of Assembly in the line of coercion brought to 
bear upon Tories, and of financial experiment in the desperation of 
the time. Every rigorous law thus enacted, with a view to meeting 
pressing necessities, could be and was used by such minor officials as 
were so disposed, to harass and persecute people who were in their 
disfavor in petty ways that were not intended and that accomplished 
no good whatever for the public. Some instances of such proceedings 
against men in Bethlehem are referred to in the diary. Thus, in 
connection with the regulations about the price of leather, Charles 
Weinicke, the Bethlehem tanner, was made the victim of a little 
conspiracy, in June, 1778, to get a Moravian indicted as a law- 
breaker. He was summoned before one of the most ill-disposed 
squires of the time, Jacob Morey, of Allentown, on the charge of 
defying an Act of Assembly in refusing to sell a shoemaker leather 
on terms demanded. This shoemaker, as was afterwards ascertained, 
had been sent to the tanner for this purpose, with the knowledge of 
the aforesaid squire. The tanner knew that the regulation appealed 
to had been changed, for the tradesmen of Bethlehem kept them- 
selves very carefully informed about such matters. Under the slow, 
official process that prevailed in the disorder of the time, his honor, 



17/8 1785- 497 

this doughty Justice, could declare that he had not received formal 
official notice of the new law, although he knew it quite well, and 
imposed the penalty, thus getting a Moravian on his docket as 
punished for violation of law. Another exploit was in connection 
with the very natural objection not only of Moravians, but of all other 
people including all members of the Assembly as well as all county 
lieutenants and squires, to accepting depreciated currency that 
might go down twenty per cent, more before they got rid of it, if 
they could get specie or its equivalent in other shape, in trade. The 
last issues of Continental currency not having been made legal tender 
in Pennsylvania, and people not being, therefore, compelled to take 
the new "Congress money," the Assembly, on March 24, 1779, 
resolved, "'that any person who shall refuse such Bills of Credit 
emitted by the Hon'ble Continental Congress, as have not been made 
a legal tender in Payment of any Debt or Compact, in which the 
Continental Bills of Credit, which have been declared legal tender, 
might be legally tendered, such person is and ought to be considered 
as an Enemy of his Country and a betrayer of the Liberties thereof." 
Then the common course pursued in making a bargain was to adjust 
terms by understanding beforehand what kind of money was to be 
used. On June 29, a certain Gallagher, clerk of John Wetzel, County 
Lieutenant, of Macungie, came to Abraham Boemper, of Bethlehem, 
and bought two watches at a price set on the basis of coin. After the 
fellow had put the watches into his pocket he took out Continental 
currency to pay the stipulated sum in that medium saying "this is 
the money I trade with." When Boemper refused to accept it he 
left with the watches and the money. When Boemper and another 
man went to AUentown to reco.ver the watches or get redress, they 
found that the squires were privy to the matter and refused to do any- 
thing, and the story went out that Boemper was a transgressor under 
the above act. But a strange retribution came to the instigator when, 
soon after that game, this same Gallagher absconded with £11,000 
of paper money for which Wetzel was accountable. In November 
of that year, a different kind of a sensation was created at the cost 
of two men in Bethlehem, the store-keeper Oberlin and a young man, 
Siegmund Leschinsky, who had just arrived from Europe. They 
were arrested for having in their possession and passing counterfeit 
paper currency, which some miscreant had brought to Bethlehem 
and imposed upon Oberlin and others. While these men were, of 
course, both victims and not evil-doers, the circumstance caused 



498 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

much stir and no end of gossip. It gave new occasion to those who 
were disposed to find satisfaction in seeing the names of two more 
Bethlehem men figure on a criminal docket as alleged conspirators 
against the Government. 

In the midst of all the turmoil caused in Pennsylvania, during the 
years 1778 and 1779, by the various acts of Assembly in reference to 
militia service and the oath of allegiance, the efforts of those func- 
tionaries who were particularly inimical to the Moravians ran in two 
general directions. One was this attempt,. by whatever kind of means 
that might offer, to shake public confidence in their character and 
to persuade men at the head of the Government who regretted that 
laws made for active enemies of the cause should have to oppress 
people from whom nothing was to be feared, and who refused to 
believe the Moravians guilty of any designs or acts against the 
Commonwealth, that this was misplaced confidence, and that there 
were treacherous and dangerous men among them, and men who 
spurned the laws. The other was to break, if possible, the compact 
made at Bethlehem and Nazareth, and stampede the men who were 
feeling the weight of the double tax and the high price of substitutes 
so grievously, into taking the test in order to have peace. As to 
the first of these designs, notwithstanding the constant espionage 
to which the Moravians were subjected, and the snares of all kinds 
laid to entrap the unwary among them, they do not figure in any 
of the long lists proclaimed under the Act of Attainder, passed by 
the Assembly in June, 1777, and, under the strong pressure of the 
dire times, made actively operative during 1778. None had the 
satisfaction of seeing a row of Moravian names on those lists of 
persons attainted as traitors, enemies of the country and operating 
against it. With a view to bringing this about and to creating a 
panic among the men at Bethlehem, County Lieutenant Wetzel put 
forth his boldest stroke early in April, 1778, when he finally brought 
to pass the arrest of twelve Moravians, with some others, and their 
lodgement in prison at Easton, on trumped-up charges which the 
diarist of Bethlehem unhesitatingly pronounces "a tissue of false- 
hoods." The arrests were not made at Bethlehem nor even at 
Nazareth, but in Wetzel's own neighborhood at Emmaus, where it 
could be done more easily and with less likelihood of immediate 
interference from higher quarters. They were marched like criminals 
with much show of guard and restraint, through Bethlehem, as an 
object-lesson. Sick soldiers in the hospital looked out of the windows 



1778 1785- 499 

and jeered as they passed, until they learned that they were Morav- 
ians, and then this ceased. The procession was made long, in order 
that it might be more imposing. The guards, acting under instruc- 
tions, tried at first to prevent all communication with them at Beth- 
lehem, but had to give way in this particular and permit them to be 
served with dinner, which the guards, of course, shared, and 
doubtless esteemed more highly than Wetzel's orders. One of the 
charges was that one of them had shot at the constable sent to arresi 
him, and had wounded him. It was soon ascertained that the shooting 
was done by another man in the neighborhood who had no con- 
nection with the Moravian Church. Accusations, as absurd as the 
old stories about sending powder and lead to savage Indians, were 
brought against others. Wetzel and their other accuser failed to 
appear against them when the trial was set. When the second 
attempt was made to try the case, he and Jacob Miller appeared and 
swore to the platitude that they were dangerous enemies of the 
State, and they were bound over. At the end of April, they were 
permitted to go home, but were threatened with another arrest if 
they did not take the test. Less than a week later, they were sum- 
moned before Squire Morey, at Allentown, to take the oath. Event- 
ually the most of them were worried into doing so. One of their 
number, against whom Wetzel had a grudge on account of a private 
quarrel, was left sitting in jail at Easton. Finally, after an appeal 
to the Supreme Court proved fruitless — for, as the law was framed, 
nothing could be done — he took the oath, paid the costs and was 
released. A revised and very stringent test act had gone into effect 
on June i. Before that, in May, many of the Moravians had united 
with the Schwenkfelders in an urgent petition for relief, addressed 
to the Assembly. It resulted in nothing further than is indicated 
in the following, written, May 22, 1778 — the day on which Thomas 
Wharton, President of the Executive Council, died — by George 
Bryan, Vice-President, to County Lieutenant Wetzel: "The Morav- 
ians and Schwenkfelders have been very urgent with the Assembly 
to relax the Test and free them from the abjuration part. The claim 
of the King of Great Britain forbids anything like this being done 
at present. When that prince shall renovmce his claim, it will be 
time enough to reconsider the Test. However, as these people are 
not to be feared, either as to numbers or malice, it is the wish of 
Government not to distress them by any unequal fines, or by calling 
them, without any special occasion happens, to take the oath at all." 



500 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

On Majr 25, Wetzel, not knowing yet of President Wharton's death, 
wrote to him, evidently somewhat stirred by the hint given him to 
desist from measures unnecessarily harassing. He had reason to 
feel on the defensive in this respect and a little uneasy, over against 
his superiors, for there had been numerous complaints about his 
harsh and overbearing ways, even by militiamen who had taken 
the oath and were doing service, and from other county officers. In 
his letter of May 25, he says : "I perceive that the Moravians and 
Sinkfelders have been busy with their petitions for redress of Griev- 
ances, which I am sure, Sir, were never inflicted on them in this 
County, more than on other people of different denominations, or 
more than the laws of this Common Wealth justly directs." He then 
disclaims all intention of distressing any one, sets forth the great 
trouble with "disafifected men" in the County, stating that one-tenth 
of them had not taken the oath yet and adds "nor do the}' ever mean 
to do it." He goes on to refer to the bad behavior of "those in 
particular who had some time ago been committed to Easton Goal," 
that merited "no lenity." Then follows this : "Notwithstanding, I 
have treated them and will ever endeavor to treat mankind in such a 
manner as no part of my Conduct shall or may be looked tipon as 
rigorous, or my actions ever deserve the name of persecution ; on 
this foundation. Sir, I shall ever Act whilst I live, and whilst I have 
the honour to be in Office under so respectable a Body as the Hon- 
ourable Supreme Executive Council of the Common Wealth of Penn- 
sylvania." Notwithstanding this specious and grandiloquent defence, 
he had to be summoned before the Executive Council in February, 
to answer complaints of oppressive acts and irregularities, brought, 
not by Moravians, but by the enlisted and organized militia of the 
county. Shortly before that, the Council, in their address to the 
Assembly, intimated that "the abuses of the process of attachments 
and replevins which are taken out upon the estates of attainted 
Traitors and upon seizures for fines and other public demands call 
for some wholesome restraints." In the preceding August, when 
fourteen men from Bethlehem, under one call for militia of the first 
four registered classes, had to each pay £8. 16. for substitutes — such 
payment always sufficed only for the particular call in question, so 
that it might come an indefinite number of times — it was clear that 
the proportion had been manipulated so as to mulct as many Morav- 
ians as possible. 

Then a new enterprise was inaugurated. Suddenly, on Sunday, 
September 7 — this was yet in 1778 — Constable Jost Walp, who 



1778 1785. 50I 

had, before that, been sent about by the Squires Jacob Morey 
and Frederick Limbach at Allentown, to worry quiet, inoffensive 
Mennonite farmers in the Saucon Valley, appeared at the Crown 
Inn armed with notices from these squires to be served upon all of 
the men at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christiansbrunn, 
to appear before their Honors on the 14th, to take the oath or 
take the consequences. No new act of Assembly, no new exciting 
cause in the neighborhood and no pressure from the Government 
to aggressively proceed with such measures occasioned this move. 
It was a business enterprise, for it meant man}' fees for the squires. 
Ettwein, hearing of the constable's presence, went across the river 
to see him, invited him to dinner, talked the matter over with him and 
persviaded him to refrain from trying to execute his rather compre- 
hensive commission, and, instead of undertaking to serve the notices 
on the individuals, to go away with the following certificate, signed 
by Ettwein, to be returned to the squires : '"This is to certify that 
Yost Walp, Constable of Upper Saucon, has summoned Bethlehem, 
Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christiansbrunn to appear before Jacob 
Morey and Frederick Limbach at Nicholas Fox's at Allentown, on 
September 14th inst. Witness my hand," &c. Constable Walp 
seemed glad to get through his wholesale service with this farcical 
formality, and left to make his returns accordingly. The next day 
Ettwein went to Easton to consult with sensible men among the 
county officers and with Col. Arndt, as to the best course to be 
further pursued. At the suggestion of Arndt — who also wrote to 
the squires that their action was unwarrantable — he proceeded at 
once to Philadelphia to take counsel with the executive heads of the 
State Government. Accompanied by William Henry, he returned 
on the 13th with the assurance that the enterprise instituted b}^ the 
Allentown squires was unauthorized, illegal in method and an imper- 
tinent assumption; and with the advice to pay no attention to the 
summons. William Henry and John Okely went to Allentown on 
the 14th and informed the waiting squires, who had been meanwhile 
advised to retract their summons but were now stubborn, that they 
need not expect any of the summoned men. They were furious, 
because the result was so different from that which had attended 
their measures among the poor Saucon farmers, and if this ambitious 
stroke, to which they were emboldened by success among men less 
able to help themselves and more easily intimidated, had likewise 
succeeded, it would have proved a profitable day's work for them. 



502 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENiNSYLVANIA. 

They were particularly enraged by the discovery that Ettwein had 
gone to Philadelphia about the matter. Rising to the full height 
of their affronted official dignity, they issued a summons for Ettwein 
and sternly declared that if he did not appear before them on the 
15th, and that too at ten of the clock in the forenoon, they would 
"have him fetched." On that morning Ettwein took his hat and 
walking-stick, declined the anxious offer of some to accompany him, 
and leisurely went to Allentown to face the irate squires. After 
a colloquy of three hours, they abandoned the idea of issuing any 
more warrants for whole towns to appear before them, and arranged 
to come to Bethlehem on April 18, to take the oath of those who 
were willing. William Henry persuaded them that this was what 
they had better do. 

It must be borne in mind that from the time when Okely's com- 
mission as a Justice lapsed, with the decease of the Proprietary 
Government, there had been no Justice at Bethlehem. None was 
sought or desired for some years. It was thought that under the 
circumstances of the time, the place would be better off without 
one. This remained so for many years. Not until the election of 
William Henry, of Nazareth, December 22, 1787, was there a squire 
again in Bethlehem Township — it then yet included Nazareth — and 
it was still later before one again resided at Bethlehem. In spite 
of this, the place managed to get on fairly well. 

In October, 1778, following that fiasco of the Allentown squires, 
another special appeal, at the suggestion of influential public men, 
was signed by citizens of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz, and pre- 
sented to the Assembly. The belief was expressed by some leading 
men that another such a petition from the Moravians, speaking only 
for themselves, might help to influence that body to modify the act 
then in force, which prudent men were convinced was both needlessly 
oppressive and impolitic. John Bayard, Speaker of the House, 
referring to this, said, "we have made a sharp weapon and madmen 
have gotten it into their hands. We must try to get it from them 
again." Timothy Matlack had written to Ettwein on September 11, 
that none of them must obey such a summons as that of the two 
squires, for if they did, its validity would thereby be recognized, 
and this must not be. It subsequently became known that the real 
instigator of the whole process was again John Wetzel, and that 
during the interview between Ettwein and the squires he was a 
surreptitious listener, concealed in an adjoining room. A man from 



17/8 1785. 503 

Lancaster named Sutton, connected with the Moravian Church there 
as a society member, had appeared in Allentown with Ettwein. His 
presence mystified the squires and made them uneasy. Tliey feared 
that he was present for the purpose of hastening to Philadelphia to 
report their proceedings. Afterwards, when twitted with not 
executing their blustering threats of what they would do with 
Ettwein when they got hold of him, their excuse was, "he has too 
many friends in the Assembly and Council." The failure of this effort 
broke Wetzel's influence. Later, after several consultations at 
Bethlehem and Nazareth, at which the most decided difference of 
opinion prevailed that had yet become manifest, it was agreed that, 
under the circumstances, it should not be regarded as a breach of 
faith towards those who were more tenderly and narrowly scrupulous, 
and might moreover be advisable, if certain classes of men, such as 
merchants, millers, tavern-keepers, physicians and others engaged 
in any kind of public business, took the test oath if they felt consci- 
entiously at liberty to do so. Some of them did then take the test. 
At Nazareth there was more unanimity in favor of maintaining the 
previous position. Still more was this the case at Lititz, where the 
people were more secluded, lived more in the atmosphere of sur- 
rounding Mennonite and Tunker sentiment, so strong in the neigh- 
borhood, and had not felt the influencing touch of the more enlight- 
ened and elevated currents of the revolutionary spirit that had been 
flowing through Bethlehem. Most of these good people, like some 
at Bethlehem, held decidedly narrow views of the great struggle of 
the times and clung to their old position in a manner that became 
open to the charge of being fanatical and stubborn, even though the 
danger that any of them would in any way lend themselves to Tory 
intrigues was so remote that the supposition was absurd, as all public 
men who were best acquainted with them knew quite well. William 
Henry, at this juncture, strongly urged the men at Bethlehem to no 
longer hold out against taking the test and declined to believe that 
the dreaded schism would mar the peace of the place to the extent 
which some apprehended. Several men in the Executive Board 
inclined to the same view, notably de Schweinitz. Ettwein's senti- 
ments had been undergoing a change on the general question of the 
Revolution, and he no longer refused to recognize the ground taken 
by the colonies as justified. But his keen dread of internal dissen- 
sion among his brethren, if gradually a party that had taken the 
oath and one that had not should be formed, induced him to urge 



504 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

maintaining the compact that had given them union and strength 
in the ordeals which had been passed, and would enable them to 
worry on through those which might yet follow, believing that noth- 
ing worse could befall them than had already been endured. Taking 
this position, he engaged to put forth every efifort that was possible 
and to employ every influence he could set in motion, to secure relief 
from those disabilities and penalties of the test laws which were 
imposed to cover the case of real traitors and actual conspirators, in 
league with the enemy. 

The test laws were amended by the passage of a bill, on November 
26, which became law on December 5, 1778. The penalties of non- 
abjuration were removed, excepting disability to hold office under 
the Government, to vote at the election of public officers and to sit 
on juries. The relief sought by the Moravians was secured by the 
terms of this act and, although the embarrassments and financial 
burdens in connection with militia duty continued, they were no 
more harassed about taking the oath as before. The civil disabili- 
ties under which they now stood did not distress them. New uneasi- 
ness and discussion were occasioned a year later, when the party in 
the Assembly which had advocated drastic laws, again acquired 
the ascendency in the passage, October i, 1779, of a sup- 
plement to the act of the previous year. It did not revive 
the severe penalties of the former acts, but specified some 
additional disqualifications, not more grievous, but of wider 
range, and provided that those who did not take the oath required 
by the act of December 5, 1778, within the fixed time should 
be perpetually debarred from the privilege and disfranchised. This 
latter was the most serious part of the amendment. The question 
was now discussed whether the time had not come when all who felt 
so inclined should take the test, in protection of person and prop- 
erty, and again there were wide differences of opinion. Ettwein 
stoutly maintained that such an act of Assembly would not stand 
permanently, that the pendulum would swing back again. Others 
lacked this cool confidence. Again Ettwein went to Philadelphia 
and had interviews with the most able and reliable leading men ; 
found that the act was regarded by them as only a temporary vic- 
tory of an extreme wing: received renewed assurances of friendship 
from the most influential quarters, and returned the last day of Octo- 
ber to still the troubled waters. But some were not satisfied, and 
when Ettwein, in pursuance of other duties, went to Hope, N. J., 




JOHN ETTWEIN 



1778 i78S- 50s 

de Schweinitz was commissioned by those who had favored another 
memorial to the Assembly, to go to Philadelphia and ascertain what 
prospect there would be for a hearing. The final conclusion was 
that "there was nothing to be done but to remain patient and quiet.'' 
Meanwhile those who wished to do so were, of course, at liberty to 
take the oath within the specified time. Thus the matter rested dur- 
ing the remainder of the Revolutionary period, and the subject of 
the test acts, as they affected Bethlehem, may be dismissed. They 
were modified in 1784, but not entirely repealed until 1789. 

As regards the militia burdens, an instance of their weight 
appeared not long after this renewed excitement about the test. On 
December 14, 1779, Sheriff Jonas Hartzel came to Bethlehem, with 
many expressions of regret and sympathy, to collect six months' 
forfeit of men enrolled in the first class. The amount that had to 
be paid was £42.6, by each man. 

After the visit of Martha Washington, in June, 1779, there are 
fewer references in the records to the presence of prominent people 
at Bethlehem than previously. One visit, noted on July 28, is of 
some interest. It is stated that three Virginians arrived, on their 
way to camp, one of them, "a certain Washington, nephew of the 
General," and that Ettwein escorted them to Christiansbrunn and 
Nazareth. This must have been Col. William Augustine Washington, 
the only relative of General Washington at that time active in the 
Continental service.* 

That comparatively quiet interval at Bethlehem, the spring and 
summer of 1779, was distinguished by an important official visit 
which revived the interrupted connection of the Moravian settlements 
and congregations in America with the general directing board of 
the Church, the Unity's Elders Conference, in Europe. Much con- 
cern was felt by that body for the case of the American Moravians. 
Bishop Spangenberg, its President, was fully capable, through his 
long residence in America and his thorough acquaintance with 
American conditions, of appreciating their situation. He under- 

8 Bushrod Washington, the General's well-known nephew, who visited Bethlehem in Oc- 
tober, 1804, was at this time (1779) only seventeen years old. Histories and works of ref- 
erence mention Col. Wm. Washington, not as a nephew, but merely as a relation of George 
Washington. Madam Riedesel, describing the sojourn of her party at Philip Van Home's, 
in Somerset County, New Jersey, in October, 1779, just before their return the last time to 
Bethlehem, says they "found there a nephew of General Washington and a number of other 
American officers." This was evidently the same Washington who had passed through 
Bethlehem less than three months before. 



506 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Stood the responsibilities, cares and trials of those who had to bear 
the brunt in leadership at Bethlehem, and could realize what devolved 
upon Ettwein when the enfeebled condition of Bishop Nathanael 
Seidel became known and his desire for relief from official duties was 
considered. 

The question of the proper attitude to be assumed by the authori- 
ties of the Church over against the great struggle in America, as 
this was viewed by them from the standpoint of a European country, 
other than England, occasioned grave deliberations. Naturally, let- 
ters from Bethlehem reached them at long intervals only, and the 
few they did receive had to touch affairs of the time with caution 
and reserve, for obvious reasons. Deep sympathy for their Ameri- 
can brethren and the felt need of another strong and wise man to 
communicate such official messages and institute such measures as 
the exigencies of the time required, and to step in and help guide 
affairs, led to the decision that a protracted official visit should be 
undertaken by a competent member of the governing board, in the 
hope that the precarious situation of war times might not prevent 
his effort to reach Bethlehem, and from there, the other Moravian 
places. 

This important and critical mission was entrusted to Bishop John 
Frederick Reichel. Not only his wife, but a number of other per- 
sons, accompanied him. Among these were the superintendent, 
Frederick William von Marschall, of Salem, North Carolina, with 
his wife and daughter. He and the Rev. David Zeisberger, Jr., of 
the Nazareth pastorate, and his wife, had been detained in Europe 
since the General Synod of 1775, which they attended. Zeisberger 
remained yet longer. Others who made up Bishop Reichel's party 
were John Jacob Swihola, who became pastor at Emmaus during 
the latter part of the Revolution; Dr. Christian Frederick Kamp- 
mann, sent over as physician at Hope, N. J. ; Siegmund Leschinsky, 
who became connected with the management of the affairs of the 
Single Brethren's House at Bethlehem ; Jacob Van Vleck, son of 
Henry Van Vleck, the former New York merchant, now a resident 
of Bethlehem, who had been pursuing his studies in the Theological 
Seminary of the Church at Barby in Saxony; and Anna Dorothea 
de Watteville, daughter of Bishop John de Watteville and grand- 
daughter of Count Zinzendorf, to be married to the Rev. John Chris- 
tian Alexander de Schweinitz, whose first wife, a daughter of von 
Marschall, had died at Bethlehem in 1775. The whole party reached 



1778 1/85. 507 

London, October 9, 1778. There they secured the necessary pass- 
ports and safe conducts from the British Government, for use so 
far as these might serve, which it was hoped would be at least as 
far as New York, then in British possession. They left London, 
the end of October, and on Christmas Day they set sail at Ports- 
mouth with a fleet of more than seventy-five craft bound partly for 
New York and partly for the West Indies, under convoy of upwards 
of twenty English war vessels of various sizes and descriptions. 
After a further delay at the naval rendezvous of Tor Bay, they 
finally put out to sea, January i, and reached New York, March 26, 
1779. Their arrival was announced at Bethlehem on the 31st. 
De Schweinitz immediately started for Hope, N. J., to proceed from 
there to Elizabethtown for the purpose of ascertaining how passes 
through the lines to Bethlehem might be had. April 2, William 
Duer, of New York, member of Congress, then in Bethlehem, 
advised Ettwein to write to President Joseph Reed, at Philadelphia, 
and offered to speak with General Washington and Governor Liv- 
ingston, of New Jersey, about the matter. Henr}' Van Vleck went 
to Philadelphia on the 7th to apply for such good offices as Presi- 
dent Reed could render, which he secured without difficulty.'' His 



9 Two papers issued by him are preserved in the Bethlehem archives. The first reads as 
follows : 

Philadelphli, April St'h, 1779. 
"Sir. 

The Bearer hereof, Mr Van Vlecli has applied to me in behalf of a Mr Marschall, his 
Lady and 2 Daughters, (one and de Watteville's daughter) the Revd Mr Reichel and his 
Lady, Mr Jacob Van Vleck, Mr Campman and Messrs Leshinsky and Swihola, all of the 
Society of Moravians. These persons are now at New York and are desirous to proceed to 
their Friends in this State at Bethlehem, for which they have my free Consent and Permis- 
sion so far as the same may be consistent with your convenience and the good of the Service. 
If therefore there is no Difficulty on that Account, you will be so obliging as to favour their 
Views by permitting them, their Servants and necessary Baggage to pass the Lines. 

I am with much Regard 
To Brigadier General Maxwell Your most humble Serv't 

Comand'g Officer Jos. Reed." 

at 
Elizabethtown. 

Another, probably written to the Commander-in-Chief — the address is torn off — is the fol- 
lovring : 
Dear Sir. 

The Bearer hereof, Mr Van Vleck is a respectable Member of the Moravian Society 
and a Gentleman of amiable Character. Some Concerns of the Society as well as of a private 



• SOS A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

testimonials and requests wei'e honored; the whole part}- was 
passed through the American lines and reached Bethlehem, April 17. 
One of Bishop Reichel's first consultations with the executive 
board — Provincial Helpers' Conference — at Bethlehem related to the 
position recommended by the Unity's Elders' Conference over 
against the Revolution and the new Government. It struck a 
middle course between the stand taken by those who thought that 
former favors from England obHgated them to loyalty, so long as 
the issues of the war were not concluded in the recognition of 
American independence, and that taken by others who held that the 
inability of the British Government to any longer protect them in 
the former privileges, released them, not only from all such allegi- 
ance, but also from standing together in declining to take any oath 
or to bear arms in active warfare, regardless of differing individual 
sentiments ; a position which, as had been formerly urged, they were 
considered under obligation to take, because exemption from these 
things was the special privilege they had sought and received. The 
principle he advocated was that of recognizing the powers that be 
de facto, leaving the question whether de jure or not out of account, 
so long as their claim was not yet recognized in terms of peace by 
their enemy, the former Government. On this basis they should 
endeavor to pursue their old calling to seek the peace of the places 
where they dwelt, and to seek the peace they desired of the existing 
Government in continuing to plead for the previous exemptions ; but, 
so far as was in their power, to render the taxes and other duties 
demanded in lieu of the service from which they sought exemption. 
If these duties should become onerous, under the stress of war, to 
the extent of spoliation, the}' should regard this as they would view 
suffering which might come upon them through other kinds of 
calamity. They should exhaust every means to secure exemption 
from oath, while exerting themselves just as strongly to prove, by 
word and conduct, that this did not signify a position of hostility to 
the new Government. If the pressure became extreme, so that it 
would be a matter of taking the oath under duress, for those whose 

Nature may make it necessary for him to wait upon your Excellency. If so I beg Leave to 
recommend him to your favorable Notice, being assured he has no desires but what are per- 
fectly consistent with the Interests of America. I am with the greatest Respect and Regard 

Dear Sir 

Your most obedient and 
Philadia April very humble Serv't 

9th 1779. Jos. Reed. 



1778 1785. 509 

scruples were strongest, such persons could not rightfully expect 
others who did not share their scruples to this extent to go with 
them into a kind of martyrdom on this account, and should not 
insist on applying their own conscience to other men's conduct to 
such an extreme. Then it must become a matter for each indi- 
vidual to settle for himself. Those who preferred to take the oath 
before such a point was reached, must have liberty to do so without 
reproach. Those who preferred to stand by their convictions to the 
last, must examine their hearts and be sure that it was really a pure 
matter of conscience. The latter must not charge the former with 
violating faith. The former must not charge the latter with mak- 
ing themselves burdensome to their brethren. Each must bear with 
the other. In any case, if there arose such a division, it must not 
be on the ground of differing attitude towards the Government, but 
purely on that of conscience in the matter of oath. Meanwhile it 
was urged that those who were for abandoning the old position in 
a body should, for the sake of others, not needlessly precipitate this 
issue within the Congregation. 

One of the important things Bishop Reichel did during his stay 
of more than two years was to introduce a body of articles, called 
a Brotherly Agreement, which all of the so-called city and country 
congregations adopted and signed, as a uniform covenant. The stat- 
utes of Bethlehem and of the other exclusive settlements, although 
a different body of articles, were in entire harmony with it in every 
declaration of principle. It was adopted by a conference of thirty 
ministers held at Bethlehem, April 26-28, 1781. It was substantially 
the same as the Brotherly Agreement at the present time issued by 
authority of the Northern Provincial Synod of the Church in 
America, as the covenant to be adopted by every new congregation 
organized. The seventh and eighth articles of that compact read as 
follows: "We" will cordially subject ourselves to the government 
that is in power over us, and will conform to all human ordinances 
of the land in which we live ; and we will by no means evade the 
payment of the taxes required of us for the support of our State 
or County. Being called to maintain peace, and being by grace 
children of peace, we will follow after peace with all men, and in 
no wise will permit ourselves to become entangled in political 
agitation or controversies, but, if such take place, in the Providence 
of God, will strive to approve ourselves as orderly and quiet citizens." 
The siarnificance of these articles of the covenant — for no such 



510 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Brotherly Agreement had before been adopted and signed by the 
people in the city and country congregations — was that they were 
introduced at this particular time, when the war was yet in progress 
and its result uncertain. They recognize an existing government, 
confess their obligation to it and promise subjection to it, while, 
on the other hand, avowing determination to keep aloof from 
politics. They refer explicitly to State and County. This means, 
therefore, due recognition of both general and local ordinances and 
officials. It is worthy of attention that at that time the Moravians 
were undoubtedly the only religious body in Pennsylvania which, as 
such, bound all its membership in its central church covenant, 
signed by all, to such a formal and explicit recognition of dutiful 
subjection to the Civil Government in its first experimental stage, 
with its armies in the field, fighting to establish its right to begin 
to exist. Some other bodies among those who objected to taking 
the test oath deemed it their duty to withhold recognition from the 
new Government. The adoption of these articles, at that time, shows 
the general drift of Bishop Reichel's policy, which meant that of the 
general authorities of the Moravian Church in Europe. It indicates 
their probable belief in the successful issue of the struggle for inde- 
pendence, and reveals that they did at least not view it as an 
unrighteous revolt. If they had strongly believed in the probable 
success of the British arms, or had strongly disapproved of the 
Revolution, they would hardly have favored the introduction of any 
kind of reference to civil government in the Brotherly Agreement, at 
a time when the end of the conflict was not yet in sight. 

It is not unlikely that the influence of the statements and masterly 
achievements of Dr. Franklin in the interest of the cause while in 
Europe, particularly his securing the important French alliance, 
affected their opinions in this respect ; especially those of Spangen- 
berg, who, like that eminent Moravian of England, James Hutton — 
although the latter was hard to convince — was a personal friend of 
Franklin. That Franklin found time and considered it worth while 
— for he had much intercourse with Hutton, personally and in 
writing — to bring some weight to bear upon these men's minds, in 
view of the interests with which they were connected in Pennsylvania 
and North Carolina, is not unlikely. Bishop Croeger states in his 
history, doubtless on the authority of official records, that Bishop 
Reichel, when he started on his journey to America, was commended 
to Franklin's good offices by Spangenberg and Hutton. 



1778 1785- S" 

When Reichel assumed official charge, both in general, which 
required visits to all Moravian fields, including that in North 
Carolina, and locally at Bethlehem, Ettwein, actually, although not 
nominally the leader before, withdrew for the time being from his 
difficult post. Besides visiting various places to assist in getting the 
Brotherly Agreement properly introduced, he devoted his particular 
attention to the affairs of Hope, New Jersey, where he took up his 
residence for a while. During the first week in June, 1779, Reichel 
effected some reconstruction of boards at Bethlehem, in accordance 
with modifications that had been decreed by the General Synod of 
1775. The general tendency of these modifications was in the line 
of reaction, to some extent, from the plan of organization fixed for 
the whole Unity and all of its parts, in 1769, towards a more compact 
federalism and a stronger central government — as intimated in a 
previous chapter, in elucidating some principles and features of 
organization. The Gcmeinrath or Common Council of the village no 
longer consisted of all the voting members or citizens, but of a 
representation from its different classes or choir divisions. There 
was a noticeable increase in the relative number of ex-officio members 
in the various official bodies ; and in the case of those who were 
elected by the people, the employment of the lot to select from 
candidates chosen, was regulated in such a way that its check upon 
mere majority choice was more strongly felt. The paramount 
position of the Elders' Conference, or Board of Elders, representing 
the connection of the Congregation with the central Unity's Elders' 
Conference, became more distinct and effective. It opened an era 
of compactness and fixedness, under strongly centralized control, 
that marked the most stationary period of the whole Moravian 
Church and of all its exclusive villages and its congregations. In 
its practical working, so far as Bethlehem was concerned, this 
tendency was, at first, perhaps salutary under existing circumstances. 
It was like making things fast and going into snug winter-quarters 
for the vicissitudes of an inclement season. The unfortunate feature 
of it appeared at a later period, resulting from the fact that every- 
thing was left there too long, when greatly changed conditions called 
for opening up and relaxation of arrangements. 

During Bishop Reichel's stay, various changes in the official 
personnel at Bethlehem took place, bringing some new names into 
prominence, while some of the officials of 1776, referred to in the 
preceding chapter, were transferred to positions elsewhere. After 



512 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the death of Thrane, there mentioned, the Rev. John Andrew 
Huebner of Niesky, an important seat of Moravian educational work, 
in Germany, was selected by the Unity's Elders' Conference to 
become their Helper, at the head of the Elders' Conference at 
Bethlehem. On account of the disturbances of war, his coming was 
delayed. He finally sailed, with his wife, from Hamburg for England 
in March, 1779, and from Portsmouth, the latter part of October, 
reaching New York, February 23, 1780. David Zeisberger, Jr., of 
Nazareth and his wife returned to America on the same vessel. They 
were accompanied also by several other persons ; John Michael Kern, 
Jeppe Nielsen, bound for Salem, N. C, and the widow Barbara 
Martens, who became superintendent of the widows. Huebner 
formally entered vipon his duties at Bethlehem on April 3, 1780. 
For a while he was also the principal preacher of the place. He 
had the assistance, in general pastoral oversight, of Paul Muenster 
and, after October, 1784, of John Frederick Peter, Sr. Jeremiah 
Dencke continued to fill the important office of warden at Beth- 
lehem, with Christian Frederick Oerter as general accountant, until 
October, 1784, when Paul Muenster assumed the wardenship. 
Andrew Busse continued to be chaplain of the Brethren's House 
and pastoral overseer of the single men until July, 1781, assisted, 
after May, 1777, by Jacob Friis, who passed the remainder of his 
days, to 1793, in that establishment, meanwhile diligently preaching 
for some years at various places about the country. July 23, 1781, 
Jacob Van Vleck, who had been had in view for the position from 
the time of his return from Europe — being a young man far superior 
in ability and attainments to those who preceded hira — and had been 
acquiring preparatory experience in the little Brethren's House at 
Christiansbrunn, became chaplain of the Brethren's House at Beth- 
lehem and special pastor of the single men — Briwderp-ftcgcr. His 
services were also utilized as secretary for the General Board and 
in writing- fair copy of the Bethlehem diary. Those who have 
occasion to search the records of that time, particularly the diary 
of the Brethren's House, have reason to bless his memory, like that 
of Immanuel Nitschmann for the manner in which he wrote them, 
when compared with some other penmanship that causes so much 
sighing, or even worse than sighing. He was also one of those 
diarists — for they dififered greatly, not only in penmanship — who had 
some historical instinct and some idea of what would be of future 
interest, and enough intelligence to use some discretion in the 



1778 1785- 513 

insertion of interesting details and incidents, even when writing 
under the strict instructions about records which reduced the diaries 
of some other men to a monotonous chronicle of dry routine, scarcely 
of any use after the governing board had examined it to see whether 
regulations were being complied with, and then filed the manu- 
script.^" 

Siegmund Leschinsky held the wardenship of the Brethren's 
House from his arrival in April, 1779, to September, 1785, assisted 
by various young men as stewards, several of them filling the 
wardenship itself ad interim at different times, as substitutes, and 
assisting the chaplain of the house in the conduct of services and in 
pastoral oversight ; these positions being filled usually by men in 
training for larger service at Bethlehem or elsewhere. Several such 
became prominent officials at Bethlehem, while others entered the 
ministry and labored at various places. Thus John Schropp became 
steward in the Brethren's House in April, 1780, and served until 
March, 1782, acquiring training for his future wardenship of the 
Congregation. Other such assistants were Abraham Reinke, Jr., 
during part of 1782, more prominently Abraham. Hessler, December, 
1782, to September, 1784, followed by John Frederick Schlegel until 
April, 1785, when John Christopher Pyrlaeus, Jr., who had occasion- 
ally been doing subordinate duty, became steward and first assistant 
to the warden until September. In April, 1785, John Gambold, 
another candidate for service in the country ministry, became an 
assistant, both to the chaplain and the \yarden of the house, 
remaining in the position five j^ears. In the Sisters' House and the 
Widows' House a superintendent and a stewardess with minor 
assistants had charge of their respective establishments. The indus- 
trial activities together with the orchard, garden and other appur- 



13 It may be remarked here that towards the end of the century a period of — although 
punctiliously regular — very barren and uninteresting diaries, as a rule, began, which con- 
tinued for nearly half a century ; consisting almost entirely of mere schedules of services 
from day to day, with painfully faithful mention of who officiated at one and another. Ac- 
tual history seems, to a great extent, to have been kept out of the congregation diary and 
recorded in the official minutes of boards, but principally in those of the Provincial Helpers' 
Conference, or, as it came to be called for a number of years, by the ponderous title. 
'■'Hclfe}- Conferejiz in'sganze der PoDisyuvainscheii tmd iimliegenden Gemcincn und Posien," 
— the title growing as the work shrank. It may also be remarked that examinations of the 
Sisters' House diary are at all periods very disappointing. It was restricted throughout to 
such momentous routine and to petty domestic details. Excepting that of the Widows" 
House, it is the least satisfactory, as a source of information, of all the official records. 
34 



514 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

tenances of the former, constituted a considerable body of affairs 
to be overseen, and called for some administrative ability on the 
part of the stewardess. There was, furthermore, connected with each 
of those households — the single women and the widows — a curator. 
Under the arrangement made in 1779, William Boehler was curator 
of the former and George Huber of the latter house. The village 
Board of Supervision — Aufschcr Collegium — as then organized, con- 
sisted of seven of the elected men drawn by lot from the body of can- 
didates chosen by ballot ; three from among the married men, three 
representatives of the single men and one to represent the widowers, 
together with six ex-ofUcio members, the several wardens and cura- 
tors and the local magistrate, if there had been one. Thus the 
general organization and the official personnel ran to the end of the 
period embraced in this chapter. 

Bishop Reichel and his wife left Bethlehem for New York, August 
6, 1781, preparatory to their return to Europe. In order to secure 
the necessary passports, he had to give satisfactory assurance that 
he would not return to the country again so long as the war con- 
tinued. At New York he visited and endeavored to strengthen the 
much-demoralized congregations in that city and on Staten Island. 
The vessel on which he took passage had to wait long for a convoy, 
and did not sail until the beginning of December. He took with 
him the ten-year-old son of de Schweinitz, Christian Frederick, and 
as companion and attendant for his wife, a young woman, Anna 
Maria Yarrell. They were accompanied also by the veteran store- 
keeper of Bethlehem, John Francis Oberlin, who, with his wife and 
four children, returned to Europe. After eighteen years of ser- 
vice, he had been succeeded in the charge of the village store, on 
Ferbruary 26, 1781, by Christian Renatus Heckewelder, a brother 
of the missionary John Heckewelder ; he having accompanied Bishop 
Reichel on his return from North Carolina to Bethlehem for this 
purpose. 

Soon after this change in the store, the inn of the place also 
changed hands. Jost Jansen, who was in charge during the most 
stirring times and entertained so many worthies and notables, retired 
from the position and was succeeded by John Christian Ebert, who 
was inn-keeper until 1790. Among the public men who visited the 
place during the last months of Jansen's incumbency were, early in 
October, 1780 — escorted by a squad of cavalry — President Joseph 
Reed, who made another visit in June, 1782; Speaker John Bayard. 



1778 1785- 515 

who came again in September, 1782, and State Treasurer David 
Rittenhouse. Among foreign celebrities and military officers are men- 
tioned, in January, 1781, the Marquis de Laval Montmorenci and the 
Count de Custrine, who took pains to investigate the institutions and 
arrangements of the place; and on April 5, the Count de St. Maine 
and Captain de St. Victor, who attended services. At the beginning 
of July, the new landlord, Ebert, had among his guests a number 
of English and German officers. To one of these the Bethlehem 
diarist makes particular reference. This was Captain David Zieg- 
ler, connected with the Pennsylvania Infantry. It is mentioned that 
he was a German soldier who had served in the Russian army in the 
Crimea, whom "Br. Mueller had met in St. Petersburg, who had 
visited Herrnhut," and who had subsequently come to Pennsylvania. 
This was the Captain Ziegler^^ who later served in Indian campaigns 
in the West, became a resident and the first Mayor of Cincinnati, 
in 1801, while living there, showed courtesies to the Moravian mis- 
sionaries, Kluge and Luckenbach, on their way to the Wabash 
River, and died there in 181 1. In 1782 not many new names appear 
in the references to noteworthy visits. In April and October, John 
Dickinson is mentioned and the retired Governor John Penn, with 
a part}^ once more in April. 

In mid-summer of that year (1782), however, Bethlehem was vis- 
ited — but without any pomp or circumstance — by a moi^e illustrious 
man than any one who has yet been mentioned. July 25, 1782, the 
diary contains the following entry : "Quite unexpectedly and very 
quietly, his Excellency, General Washington, arrived here, accom- 
panied by two aids de camp, but without escort. Brother Ettwein 
and other brethren immediately went to pay their respects to him. 
After partaking of a meal, he inspected the choir-houses (Brethren's 
House, Sister' House and Widows' House) and other objects of 
interest in the place, and attended the evening service, at which 
Bro. Ettwein delivered a discourse in English, on the text : 'In all 
things approving ourselves as the ministers of God,' etc. (II. Cor. 
6:4), and the choir rendered some fine music, both at the beginning 
and at the close. The General manifested much friendliness, and 
the pleasure and satisfaction which the visit afforded him were 
clearly to be inferred from his utterances," The diary of the Breth- 
ren's House, written by the same person, Jacob Van Vleck, repeats, 

■I J. G. Rosengarten, The German Soldier in the Wars of Ike United States, second 
edition, p. 124. 



510 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

substantially, part of this record and particularly mentions his visit 
to that house, his partaking of refreshments there while listening 
to music performed on the organ by Van Vleck, and the impression 
made by his imposing and agreeable personality. He passed the 
night of July 25 at the Sun Inn, occupying the principal "guest- 
room," as the house was then arranged. The record of July 26 
states that "at a very early hour he proceeded on his journey by 
way of Easton," and that "Bro. Ettwein, who had expected to go 
to Hope, N. J., accompanied him to the first-named place and then 
(while the General apparently tarried a while at Easton) rode on 
ahead to make some preparation for his entertainment at Hope, 
where he dined and looked about the place with pleasure. "^- 

12 The above translation of the diary notes was furnished, in 1891, by the writer of these 
pages for that part of the " Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to Decem- 
ber 23, 1783," by Wm. S. Baker, which appeared in Vol. XV, of the Pa. Mag. of Hist, and 
Biog. This was Washington's First and Only Visit to Bethlehem. Numerous 
confusing, contradictory and erroneous statements on this subject have appeared in print. 
Some writers have treated of two supposed visits. This tradition undoubtedly arose out of 
the visit of the "nephew of General Washington" on July 28, 1779. Matthew S. Henry's 
History of the Lehigh Valley has, on page III, the following : " General Washington passed 
through Easton during the year 177S. The Bethlehem recollections are that he arrived at 
that place accompanied by one of his aids, where, after partaking of a dinner, he hurried on 
to Easton." On pp. 215-216 of the same work stands the following : " Washington was 
here (Bethlehem) in 1778 and was introduced into the various rooms (Sisters' House) by 
Bishop Ettwein, (Bp. 1784) where finding in the room the mother of the writer, who among 
others was at work, he remarked, ' Ladies, I am pleased to find you all busy at work.' 
Ettwein replied to him, ' yes, it stands written in the Bible, those that do not work shall not 
eat.' The General purchased several pair of knit hose for himself, and the sisters presented 
him with a dress pattern of ' blue stripe ' for his lady which he said she should wear." The 
statement follows that " he was received with music on the trombones from the belvedere on 
the Brethren's House " when he entered the village. Then is mentioned also the recollec- 
tion of some old inhabitants about the odd appearance of the short Ettwein walking between 
the tall General and his apparently also tall adjutant. Continuing, Mr. Henry says: "In 
the spring of 1778, Washington again passed through Bethlehem on his way to Easton, but 
did not stay longer than was necessary to get some dinner for himself and aid and feed for 
the horses." The author, writing at Easton and preferably for Eastonians, makes that town 
the objective point of both those alleged visits of 177S, and the impression might be gotten 
from the reference to the second, that Washington sought to avoid a second contact witli 
Bethlehem people and to get out of the place to Easton as soon as possible. It may be ac- 
cepted as certain that Washington was neither in Easton nor in Bethlehem nor in the neigh- 
borhood in 1778, or at any other time prior to July, 1782. To that visit, which he really did 
make to both places, Mr. Henry makes no allusion although it is a matter of plain official 
record at the time and not of mere current tradition or "oldest inhabitant's'' recollection — 
always an uncertain source. The incident in the Sisters' House, which Mr. Henry relates, 
which various other writers have gotten from his book and reproduced, could then only have 



1778 1785- 517 

Other new visitors of interest, up to the close of the period cov- 
ered by this chapter, may be mentioned in this connection, so that 
this feature in the picture of Bethlehem life during those years, pre- 
served in various extant records, need not be again adverted to. 
The next visit of special note, because it produced one of the inter- 
esting published descriptions of the place at that time by a distin- 
guished foreigner, was that of the Marquis Francois Jean de Chas- 
tellux, who had entered the American service under Rochambeau. 
He came to Bethlehem, December 10, and remained over the next 
day. He asked many minute questions about things, says the diarist, 
and, as a result, he devoted some space in his famous narrative^^ to 

13 Voyage dans l' Atnerique septentrionale dans les annees, 1780-S2, Paris, 17S6 — ''translated 
by an English gentleman who resided in America at that period, with notes by the tr.5nsla- 
tor." The English translation, under the title Ti-avels in North America, 1780-S2, was 
published in London in 17S7. The anonymous translator, who was eventually concluded to 
have been one George Grieve, a Northumberland attorney, in America several times between 
1780 and 1783, was evidently also in Bethlehem and reveals some knowledge of Moravian 
people and things. 

occurred in 17S2. Washington was at that time on his way from Philadelphia to his head- 
quarters at Newburg-on-the-Hudson, If he had been in Bethlehem twice in the early part 
of 177S, it would have been while the hospital was yet at the place. That two visits by the 
Commander-in-Chief to the place under those circumstances would not be alluded to by 
himself or any public official in any extant public records, any journals or correspondence is 
not s'upposable. The statement Mr. Henry makes about the second alleged visit, if 1779 
were substituted for 1778, would partly apply to the visit of the "nephew," but the latter 
went from Bethlehem to Nazareth. That Washington was greeted on entering the village 
by the music of trombones from the belvedere, or roof terrace, of the Brethren's House, was 
only an unfounded local tradition embellishing the story. He appeared in the place sud- 
denly, not expected by any one. That compliment was sometimes paid in olden times to 
prominent Moravian visitors or to particular dignitaries of state. Even if there were no 
other circumstantial or negative evidence that General Washington was not in these parts 
prior to 1782, any one who has examined the Bethlehem diaries of those years and noted how 
the presence of all the prominent generals and civil officers who visited the place is regu- 
larly recorded, will take the absence of all reference to a visit, by the greatest of them all, as 
convincing evidence that he was never among them. 

Mr. John Hill Martin, who assiduously gathered up local traditions and oldest inhabitants' 
recollections for the Historical Sketch of Bethlehem (1869), incorporated several in connection 
with Washington, which also reveal the confused and uncertain character of such sources. 
That Ettwein was conspicuously a Whig among Tory clergy (p. 20) is an instance of erron- 
eous tradition. That "nearly all the sisters sided with the Whigs," will not be taken 
seriously by those who know how much Moravian sisters of that time indulged in pronounced 
political sentiments. The Rev, C. F. Seidel, there quoted, who came to America in 1806, first 
settled at Bethlehem in 1817. Ettwein hardly spoke German to Washington (p. 30), and 



5lS A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Bethlehem, giving previously also an interesting account of his visit 
to Hope, N. J. Bearing the reputation of a somewhat flippant French 
aristocrat, not much in sympathy with Christian piety, it is the more 
striking that he treats the institutions and customs of Bethlehem with 
so much respect. His first remarks, as usual, are about the tavern. 
Some misunderstanding or misinformation led him to state that it 
formerly served the Moravian Brethren as a magazine. He says, 
"I could not derive much information from my landlord on the 
origin, opinions and manners of the Society, but he informed me 
that I should next day see the ministers and administrators, who 
would gratify my curiosity. The nth, at half-past eight, I walked 
out with a Moravian, given me by the landlord, but who was likewise 



even if he did, he hardly addressed him with "!/«." That Washington said " I wish I were 
a simple Moravian" is highly improbable. 

The recoUfections of one "old sister," quoted (p. 32), correctly state only one visit, but 
do not give the year. James Hall, the fuller (p. 32), evidently confused the two Washing- 
tons. The trombone music he refers to was probably rendered when Washington approached 
the house on his tour of the town after dinner. iVlr. Martin gives these statements as he got 
them. An additional tradition, given by the Rev. Wm. C. Reichel in The Crown Inn, p. 
1 10, is the following : " According to the late Mr Frederick Fuehrer's statement (he was the 
fifth son of Valentine and Margaret Fuehrer [thirteen years inn-keeper at the Crown] and 
having been born in the ferry-house in September, 176S, was in the fifteenth year of his age, 
when Washington was at Bethlehem) the General passed the night of the 24th of July at 
his father's, and on retiring, pleasantly sought to impress the people of the house with an 
idea of the height of his person by reaching his hand into a ring suspended from a staple in 
the ceiling, which was inaccessible by men of ordinary stature." This " recollection," 
somewhat perplexing because definite and circumstantial, admits of two explanations. One 
is that this again was not General Washington, but the " nephew" of July, 1779, and that 
the exact date (24th) was assumed by Reichel as the only possible one in connection with 
the General's visit, the memory of Fuehrer having hardly been so distinct, he, at most, prob- 
ably specifying, " the night before " Washington came into Bethlehem. This was not an 
improbable occurrence in the case of the nephew, who may also have been a tall man and 
was doubtless more likely than his stately uncle to thus show off his height, to "astonish 
the gazing rustics ranging round," The other possible explanation is that General Washing- 
ton, traveling unannounced and unobtrusively, as he was then doing, may really have passed 
the night belore entering Bethlehem at the Crown on the south side, reaching there perhaps 
late in the evening from Pottsgrove, now Pottstown. In the Itinerary of General Washing- 
ton {Pa. Mag., XV, p. 306) it is assumed that he passed the night of the 24th at Pottsgrove, 
from an entry of his expense account : " Exp. to Pottsgrove, £\^. 13. 4 — Bethlehem, £},. 
17.6." But this is not conclusive, for that entry has merely "July, 17S2," without exact 
date. Lodging and breakfast at the Crown and next day's entertainment at the Sun might 
not unnaturally have been placed in one item as "Bethlehem." This lengthy note, which 
some may think needless, may prove of use to others, for reference, bringing under review 
together, at one place, the various published Bethlehem-Washington stories. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 

From Chas. Willson Peale's PonxnAiT of 1780 

See Penna. Magazine, Vol. XIII, P. 257 



1/78 1785. 519 

ill-informed, and only served me as a guide. He was a seaman who 
imagined he had some talent for drawing, and amuses himself with 
teaching the young people, having quitted the sea since the war, 
where, however, he had no scruple in sending his son. He subsists 
on a small estate in Reading, but lives at Bethlehem, where he and 
his wife board in a private family."^* The example of the old-time 
Bethlehem hotel-keeper, Ebert, in referring visitors who propose to 
write, to the "ministers and administrators" when led into deep water 
by questions out of the ordinary about Moravian history, doctrine 
and institutions, might even in modern times be followed by some 
interrogated people, with results more in accordance with the facts 
when the fruits of such inquiry appear in print. 

His first visit was to the "house for single women." Referring 
to the variety of work done there, he remarks that some "engaged 
in works of taste and luxur)'," revealed a particular skill in certain 
tine kinds, "like our French nuns." He speaks of the superinten- 
dent, "Madame de Gersdorff," as being "a woman of family," but 
states that "she did not presume upon her birth." Like a high- 
bred gentleman, he offered her his hand in going up and down 
stairs and she even appeared surprised at the attention. Of the 
dormitory he says, "though it be very high and airy, a ventilator is 
fixed in the roof like those in our play-houses." In the "clean and 
well-kept" kitchen were "immense earthen pots upon furnaces," like 
in our hospitals, he says. In the chapel of the house he observed, 
besides the organ, "several instruments suspended on nails." The 
church — the present Old Chapel — he speaks of as "simple" with the 
remark, it "differs little from that we had seen at Moravian Mill." 
He means Hope, N. J., where he had previously been, and which 

14 The seaman referred to was Nicholas Garrison, Jr., who owned property and had been 
in business at Reading, for a while served as an express between Moravian places during 
the Revolution, and al this time was at Bethlehem with his wife Grace, daughter of William 
Parsons, founder of Easton, whom he brought to Bethlehem in March, I "So, on account of 
her impaired health. Commonly, his attainments as a draughtsman and sketcher are spoken 
of with more appreciation than the French Marquis expresses. He made views of a num- 
ber of Moravian settlements of which two of Bethlehem, 1757 and 1784, and one of Naza- 
reth, 1761, are known to have been engraved and piirted. His eldest son, Nicholas No. 3, 
born in 1760, came to Bethlehem in March, 1782, from Philadelphia to visit his parents. He 
it is to whom de Chastellux refers as sent to sea and whom the translator, who says he served 
with him on board ship, gives an exceedingly bad reputation in a note ; commenting on the 
miscarriage of his good Moravian education and training. The "seaman" must not be mis- 
taken, as has been done by some, for the famous old Captain Garrison, Sr., who died in 17S1. 



520 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYEVANIA. 

bore that name among some, on account of its famous mill, which 
was an important objective point, and the superior mechanism of 
which particularly interested many observant travelers. He also 
speaks of the "religious pictures" which he saw in the church. 
When he went to the house of the single men he found the super- 
intendent, Jacob Van Vleck, copying music, and states that "he had 
in his room an indifferent piano forte made in Germany." He also 
found him to be "not only a performer, but a composer." On the 
organ of the house. Van Vleck "played some voluntaries in which 
he introduced a great deal of harmony and progressions of bass." 
The Marquis says that he found him "better informed" than those 
he had before met with, but adds, "yet it was with some difificulty I 
got from him the following details." He then gives a concise state- 
ment of the general organization of the Brethren, the economic 
system, the property arrangements, the discipline and social order 
and, of course, the much-discussed subject of inarriage, in connec- 
tion with which, however, he does not refer to the use of the lot to 
settle the question of a proposed marriage. While some of his state- 
ments are quite amiss, they are, on the whole, substantially correct on 
these various subjects, and are interesting as made from the stand- 
point of an outside observer, using his own terms for things which 
were then translated into English expressions different from those in 
current use among the Brethren, as applied to ofifiices and ofScial 
affairs. He found the Brethren's House much the same as the Sisters' 
House in its internal order. His attention was attracted by a novel 
arrangement for "awakening those who wish to be called up at a given 
hour," and describes it. He says, "all their beds are numbered, and 
near the door is a slate on which all the numbers are registered. A 
man who wishes to be awakened early, at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing (this was not earl}' at Bethlehem except in winter) for example, 
has only to write the figure five under his number. The watchman 
who attends the chamber observes this in going his rounds, and at 
the time appointed, the next morning, goes straight to the number 
of the bed, without troubling himself about the name of the sleeper." 
He also took a view of the surroundings from the belvedere on the 
roof. He visited the Bethlehem farm. He says it was "kept in 
good order, but the inside was neither so clean nor so well-kept as 
in the English farm-houses, because the Moravians are more bar- 
barous than their language." The translator, as an Englishman, 
doubtless enjoyed rendering this latter remark, wliich rendering 



1778 1785- 521 

appears to be a defective translation of tl:e autlior's meaning. Then 
after eating breakfast, at ten o'clock, with which he was '"still better 
satisfied" than with his walk, he and those with him proceeded on 
their journey at noon; halting twenty miles away, towards Phila- 
delphia, at Kalf's tavern, a German house, very poor and filthy." 
This kind of comments by travelers on country taverns in Pennsyl- 
vania generally, in those days, was the common rule. 

The first new visitor of the following year, 1783, to be specially 
mentioned, was Attorney General John Gardiner, of the Island of 
St. Kitts, the first week in June. Counsellor Gardiner was a son of 
Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, of Boston, proprietor of the "Plymouth 
Purchase" on the Kennebeck River, in Maine, the region in w^hich 
the Broad Bay work had previously been carried on by Moravian 
evangelists. John Gardiner was acquainted with Moravian clergy in 
England, had his son, who later became rector of Trinity Church, 
Boston, educated in the Moravian School at Fulneck, England, was 
a warm friend and supporter of the Moravian missionaries in St. 
Kitts, and for some time was engaged in negotiations with the Mora- 
vian authorities with a view to the founding of a settlement on the 
Kennebeck." He was received with much pleasure at Bethlehem, 
spent six days at the place, was accompanied, on his departure, as 
far as Nazareth, by Ettwein, and from there proceeded to Boston. 
At the end of June there is a reference to the celebrated Judge 
Edmund Pendleton, of Virginia, who had sojourned some time as 
an invalid at Bethlehem and left, much benefitted in health. Four 
weeks later Dr. Otto was called to attend the Swedish Baron von 
Hermelin — an eminent mineralogist, on a tour of scientific investi- 
gation — who was taken ill on the road six miles away. He was 
brought to Bethlehem for treatment and remained until August 7. 

From July 22 to August 29 of that year, 1783, the famous Captain 
Paul Jones was most of the time at Bethlehem. He was accompa- 
nied to the place by the well-known Philadelphia merchant, Samuel 
Wharton, who seems to have just returned from his eventful sojourn 
in Europe, where, after fleeing from England, he had sought the 
befriending offices of Dr. Franklin in France. The diarist says he 
became acquainted with the English Moravian, James Hutton, dur- 
ing the intercourse of the latter with Franklin. Captain Jones had 
occasion to participate during his stay, as a voluntary emergency 
police captain, in an exciting incident at the Crown Inn. After the 



15 See Transactions, A/oravian Hisforical Society . IV, 53-65. 



522 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

evening service of the Children's Festival, August 17, Fuehrer, inn- 
keeper at the Crown, came over and reported the suspicious move- 
ments and unruly acts of two individuals who had followed to his 
tavern a traveler who carried a sum of money which, under fear of 
these men, he had given into Fuehrer's care. Meanwhile they 
attacked the traveler, deprived him of his letters and papers, 
inflicted bodily injury upon him and threatened to kill him, when he 
escaped in the darkness, the assailants then intimidating the other 
persons at the tavern and taking possession of the place. There 
being no magistrate at Bethlehem, Captain Jones took matters into 
his hands and made arrangements to hold and guard the ruffians 
until an officer could be summoned. The next day a neighboring 
Justice was sent for, the affair was investigated, the assaulted trav- 
eler appeared, the prisoners, who were both found to be tavern- 
keepers on the road to Philadelphia, were bound over to court, and 
at the trial, on September 18, the worthy squires concluded that the 
affair was trivial and the case was dismissed. The apparent reason 
for their leniency is doubtless to be found in the fact that the trav- 
eler's errand proved to be one associated with Moravian mission- 
aries and Indian missions to which their worships — most of them — 
cherished the old repugnance, cultivated among some classes of 
people in Northampton County. The aforesaid tavern-keepers who 
followed the traveler to Bethlehem proposed, as it seems, to earn 
fame in the service of their country by hunting down a traitorous 
emissary of the Moravians and unearthing some dark plot. When 
the papers taken by them from their victim, after he first escaped 
from their hands, were examined by Captain Paul Jones and others 
at the tavern, the traveler turned out to be a trader, Ebenezer Allen, 
who, on August 2, had brought to Bethlehem letters sent, June 22, 
from Niagara b}^ that faithful assistant of the missionaries John 
Joseph Bull, alias Shebosh, frequently mentioned in former chap- 
ters, and John Weigand, of Bethlehem, on their way as messengers 
of the Moravian authorities to the fugitive missionaries Zeisberger, 
Heckewelder and Sensemann, settled with the remnant of their con- 
verts at New Gnadenhuetten, on the Huron River — now Clinton — 
in the present State of Michigan. 

The whole affair had a connection, therefore, with occurrences 
on the ragged border-edge of the great Revolutionary struggle, out 
in the wild West, which once more involved the Moravians and 
gave the heaviest blow to their Indian missions that had yet been 




JOHN MARTIN MACK JOHN HECKEWELDER 

DAVID ZEISBERGER 
OWEN RICE (.1st) ABRAHAM LUCKENBACH 



1778 1785- 523 

suffered. This blow was the cold-blooded slaughter of ninety Mora- 
vian Indians, men, women and children, together with six other 
Indians, by a band of lawless white guerillas at Gnadenhuetten, on 
the Tuscarawas River — then called the Muskingum, being a con- 
fluent of that stream — in the present State of Ohio, on March 8, 
1782. That atrocious deed, although it has had its apologists, has 
passed into history as one of the blackest stains on the records of 
the border country of that time. Yet it was probably no worse than 
some men in Pennsylvania were ready to perpetrate, and would have 
perpetrated, in 1764, if there had been as little restraint around them 
as there was around those in Ohio. If the deed had been executed 
upon those savages who had been guilty of the terrible outrages in 
the West that excited many almost to frenzy, it would have admitted 
of some palliation, under the awful circumstances of the time. As it 
was, however, historians who can apologize for it, can bring them- 
selves to defend any dastardly wickedness men were ever guilty of, 
should it suit some purpose of the writers to do so. The Indians at 
Gnadenhuetten had no more to do with the atrocities which that band 
of rangers wished to avenge, than had the most innocent women and 
children in the settlements. The details of that deliberate butchery 
of a lot of defenseless, submissive, praying Christian men, women 
and children, penned up for the purpose and then led out, one after 
another, to be slaughtered like cattle, are to be classed with the most 
inhuman deeds that men professing to be civilized have ever been 
known to commit in warfare. The affair sent a thrill of indignant " 
horror through the country, and into the highest circles of Govern- 
ment, leading to Congressional action, with a view to investigation 
and punishment ; but, as events proved, there was little to be done 
under the crudely-organized administration and distracted condi- 
tions of the time. At Bethlehem, when the first intimation was 
received, a month after it occurred, the people were appalled and 
grief-stricken. This awful calamity to the missions hastened the 
end of the enfeebled and suffering old President of the Executive L^ 
Board, Bishop Nathanael Seidel, who passed away on Mav 19. 
1782." 

16 In his decease, the most conspicuous man yet remaining of those who figured promi- 
nently in the early days of Bethlehem passed away. Amid the scenes of the Revolution 
others of prominence had departed : John Bechtel, in April, 1777 ; Valentine Haidt, 
the painter of pictures, in January, 1780 ; Frederick Boeckel, Farmer General, the same 
year; "neighbor" John Jones, in June, 17S1 ; Captain Nicholas Garrison, .Sr., in Sep- 



524 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Ten days before the disturbance of August 17, 1783, at the Crown 
Inn, which has given occasion to this digression, another tourist 
arrived at Bethlehem whose visit led also to an interesting published 
description of the place. This was Dr. John David Schoepf, a sur- 
geon from Baireuth in Bavaria, who had been serving in the British 
army. The diarist refers to him as having been with the Anspach 
soldiers, and having remained in the country to study its natural 
resources. His special object was to collect medicinal plants in 
order to extend the range of materia mcdica}' The scientist, the 
lover of nature, and the man capable of being pleased and of pleas- 
ing, are revealed in his account. It treats, more than do any previous 
narratives of the kind that have been referred to, of the natural sur- 
roundings of Bethlehem, and enables readers of the present time to 
form a better idea of the beautiful scenery along the Lehigh in olden 
times. In his description of an August visit to Bethlehem, the 
"placid and charming Lehigh," around the banks of which "gather 
in bewitching beauty all the fascinations of a truly delightful region,'" 
and the formation of the ridges and heights that constitute the 
Lehigh Hills with their bluish rock, their foliated gneissoid rock and 
their underlying gray limestone, first come in for mention. Among 
the "beautiful shrubs and trees which, with their shadow and boughs 
overhanging the bank far into the stream, impart to the picture a 
glow of richest exuberance," are mentioned kalmia, rhododendron, 
cephalanthus, sassafras, azalea, liriodendron, magnolia, and others 
which people in Germany "long to have in gardens and parks." This 

tember, 1781 ; Henry Miller, the printer, in March, 1782; Michael Haberland and Henry 
Beck, associated with the early work in Georgia, and George Klein, the " Father of Lititz " 
and first stage-line manager from Bethlehem to Philadelphia, all in 1783. Among those 
who departed in 1 785 were the Rev. John George Nixdorff, the Rev. Christian Olto Krog- 
strup, and the old school-master Adam Luckenbach, ancestor of all the numerous families of 
that name at Betlilehem, who, although never actually a member of the Moravian Church, 
was treated as such at his death. 

17 The results of his researches were embodied in ^'Materia Medica Amcricanis Septmt- 
trionalis Pottissimum Regni Vegcinbilis," published at Erlangen in 1787. The distinguished 
Pennsylvania botanist, the Rev. Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, seems to have rendered 
him valuable assistance, as did also Dr. John Matthew Otlo, of Bethlehem, whom he men- 
tions several times in his Incidents of 'I'ravel. See on Dr. Schoepf Thi: German Wars in 
the United States, by Rosengarten. The entire section of the Incidents of Travel, which 
relates to Bethlehem and the neighborhood was reprinted as Appendix No. 1 in .•/ History 
of the Rise, Progress and Present Condition of the Moravian Seminary for Voting Ladies 
at Bethlehem, Pa. — " Bethlehem Seminary Souvenir" — 1858, 1870 and is, therefore, access- 
ible to more readers than the descriptions of other travelers that have been (|Uoted from. 



1778 i78S- 525 

is what a traveler in 1783 found where now the cinder banks burn 
under the August sun. To the mind of the genial writer "the ferry- 
man and his two assistants seemed to reflect the cheering aspect 
of the landscape, being friendlier and more accommodating than the 
generality of settlers in the vicinity." 

He then enumerates the principal buildings of the town and com- 
ments on the cleanliness, order and industry. He observed that 
while there were few English in the place, nearly all were conversant 
with both languages, and that there was English preaching every 
Sunday. He says, "As most of the Brethren, and especially their 
ministers, are of Saxon origin, it is a matter of no surprise that the 
purest and most correct German of which America can boast is 
spoken here at Bethlehem, and in the other Moravian settlements." 
Ettwein was absent on a journey, but in Huebnet he "found an 
agreeable and amiable gentleman and an ardent lover of botany." 
He bestows the customary praise upon the inn, refers to Baron 
Hermelin, the Swedish mineralogist who was there sick, and notes 
Dr. Otto's skillful treatment, under which he was recovering. The 
various "factories and mills," the water-works, and the new brewery 
are alluded to and in part described. The observant visitor refers 
to "an iron nail of the thickness of the little finger and three inches 
long," found in digging a cellar, "ten feet below the surface of the 
ground and fifteen or twenty feet from the bed of the river," at a 
place where no excavations were known to have ever taken place 
before. He speculates on the possibility of its having come from 
the wrecked vessel of European navigators, before the days of 
Columbus, and having been brought inland by Indians ; and on the 
length of time requisite to have thus buried it under that depth of 
soil through deposits by the annual rise of the waters. The skill 
of Bethlehem's artisans and the variety and excellence of their 
products are praised. He acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. 
Otto "for a variety of information respecting the medicinal proper- 
ties of indigenous plants." "What a glorious land would America 
be," he says, "if all its inhabitants conformed to the pattern afforded 
bv the Societv at Bethlehem." Referring to the position of the 
people in the matter of bearing arms and the trouble to which it 
had subjected them, he says, "Their love of peace and quiet cost the 
Moravian Brethren dear during the late war of the American Revo- 
lution." 

The long war could at that time be thus spoken of as at an end. 
On January 20, 1783, the preliminary Treaty of Peace had been 



526 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

signed. On April 11, Congress had ordered a cessation of hostili- 
ties, and this had been announced on the i6th by the Supreme 
Executive Council of Pennsylvania. The final treaty was signed, 
September 3. Its ratification by Congress took place, January 14, 
1784, and was proclaimed on January 22. 

On December 11, 1783, the people of Bethlehem joined devoutly 
and joyfully in services of thanksgiving, in accordance with public 
proclamation. With grateful hearts they looked into the future 
and, in their restricted sphere, deliberated upon plans for the new 
era and the changed conditions, as in the wider sphere, men upon 
whom the responsibilities of state rested gave their attention to the 
proper formation of government, to dealing with the glorious and 
the grievous, results of the war and to the development of nation- 
ality. The Moravians were prepared to approve themselves faithful 
"and law-abiding citizens under a new government, as they had 
striven to be under the old one. The prospects for the prosecution 
of their old missionary calling among the Indian tribes were not 
highly inspiring, for the ruin that had been wrought in the Tusca- 
rawas Valley, in Ohio, had left them, thus far, nothing that could 
be done but to hold, if possible, the rerrinant that survived. But 
plans for a new forward movement were being discussed, in spite of 
the discouragement, under the inspiration given b}^ the celebration 
of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of Moravian missions, in 
that same sadly memorable year, 1782. 

There were also other problems of readjustment and reconstruc- 
tion to be considered in a variety of greater and lesser things. The 
ordeal of the preceding years had not been without its internal 
effects, not only in their scattered town and country congregations, 
but also in their exclusive settlements. Some of these effects at 
Bethlehem were far from pleasing and salutary. Associations and 
impressions that could not be avoided had left their mark on many 
of the young men in particular, in ways that caused the fathers of 
the village grave concern. Among some the old simplicity, the old 
loyalty to the ideals of the place in its central missionary purpose, 
its religious, social and industrial life, had departed. That solidarity 
which had once made the Single Brethren so effective in united 
strength and zeal, in every effort upon which their energies were 
directed, was seriously weakened. Thoughts and ways picked up out- 
side were adopted by some who at the same time lacked the caliber, 
the stamina and the experience in the outside world that were 



1778 1785- 527 

requisite to make them sturdy and reliable men, if emancipated from 
the old tutelage and left to act independently. Even some contami- 
nation of morals was painfully evident, here and there, among those 
whose years of transition from boyhood to manhood had fallen in 
the time of the Revolution, when evil influences could not be kept 
at a distance. Not only the toning up of discipline and order, but 
the revival of industries and the rehabilitation of the economic sys- 
tem, to make the diacony of the Single Brethren flourish again on 
the old basis, were attended with difficulty. 

Throughout, in the matter of general and local government, in 
the management of property and finances, in the conduct of trades 
and handicrafts, in pastoral oversight and educational work, the 
problem of the time was complicated. Those who dealt with it had 
to face the fact that, on the one hand, after the Revolution, it could 
be said that, in many respects, old things had passed away and all 
things had become new in the country in which they were placed, 
while, on the other hand, their intimate organic connection with the 
European settlements of the Church, and the nature of their subjec- 
tion to immediate control by the central Executive Board in Europe, 
bound them to conformity, even in the minutest details, to principles, 
and methods which were fixed for both sides of the ocean alike, and 
were not altered by the great changes produced by the American 
Revolution. Along with all this was the fact that through the exten- 
sive acquaintance that had been formed during the Revolution with 
leading men in all parts of the country, who regarded the Moravian 
settlements with admiration and conceived that more such would be 
desirable, in opening up and developing the country, they were met 
by numerous inducements and even urgent requests to colonize in 
different regions and increase the number of such settlements. This 
also gave rise to questions that had to be considered. Then, fur- 
thermore, the impression made upon so many intelligent people by 
the educational system and methods of the Moravians, and the desire 
of many such to find good schools in which to place their sons and 
daughters — for there was a woeful scarcity of such — resulted in 
applications from one quarter and another for permission to bring 
children to Bethlehem to be educated. 

The boarding-school for girls had been maintained through all the 
demoralization, on a small scale, but not on a plan that admitted the 
daughters of people generally, or afforded the facilities they sought. 
That for boys at Nazareth Hall had been temporarily closed in Sep- 



528 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

tember, 1779, under the dire stress of the time, and the six boys 
remaining in it had been transferred to Bethlehem and placed in the 
little school that was' again domiciled in the large stone house which 
in its palmy days had quartered a much greater number before they 
were moved to Nazareth Hall, when the school there was first 
opened in 1759. Hence it came that the question of re-organizing 
and enlarging the plan of school work to meet these applications, 
as an important branch of Christian service to the public in the new 
era that had been entered, was added to the other questions to be 
considered. 

Very naturally the Unity's Elders' Conference, at the close of the 
Revolutionary War, concluded to send a representative to America 
to direct the various new measures that had to be introduced, while 
thoroughly inspecting affairs, both externally and internally, and 
doing what seemed best to foster the spirit and fix the form then 
thought desirable. Bishop John deWatteville, commissioned to 
undertake this task, proceeded with his wife, early in September, to 
Holland, took passage on the ship Neutrality, Captain Carl Siever, 
in the harbor of the Texel, and sailed, September 27. They were 
accompanied by the Rev. John Daniel Koehler, destined for Salem, 
N. C, and his wife ; an attendant named Sponar, and a woman, Jus- 
tina Graff. Their voyage was an exceedingly long one, full of hard- 
ship and peril. Reaching the vicinity of Sandy Hook early in Janu- 
ary, and being tossed about there until nearly the end of the month, 
they headed for the West Indies ; were shipwrecked off the Island 
of Barbuda, spent some time in Antigua, and finally sailed in another 
vessel for Philadelphia, where they landed, the end of May, and 
reached Bethlehem, June 2, 1784. Their nearness to New York and 
then their shipwreck in the West Indies had become known and their 
arrival had been awaited with the utmost anxiety, especially, of 
course, by deSchweinitz and his wife, the son-in-law and daughter 
of deWatteville, and the joy in welcoming them was correspondingly 
great. This was Bishop deWatteville's second visit to America, 
but the third made by his wife, who must have been much impressed 
by the changes that had taken place at Bethlehem since she first 
saw the spot when, a maiden of less than seventeen years, she 
accompanied her father, Count Zinzendorf, to the Forks of the 
Delaware in 1741. 

DeWatteville's duties, during his stay of three vears in the United 
States, embraced more or less extended visits to all of the congre- 



17/8 178s- 529 

gations in the Northern States and a protracted sojourn in North 
Carolina, where a separate executive government for the Wachovia 
work was organized which survives to the present time, dividing the 
Moravian Churches in America into two Provinces. The seat of 
government of the Northern Province continued to be at Bethlehem. 
After the death of Bishop Nathanael Seidel, Ettwein, first Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Executive Board, who had been engaging for a while in 
official duties at Lititz, returned, on May 31, 1782, to Bethlehem, to 
fully take the President's place, with Huebner as Vice-President, 
until instructions about the permanent filling of these positions 
should be received from Europe. A General Synod was held at 
Berthelsdorf, Saxony, that year and,- although no deputy from 
America was present, American affairs were specially considered by 
a committee, and various enactments relating to them resulted. 
Ettwein was to be the successor to Seidel, and he became the candi- 
date for the episcopacy to fill the vacancy. Bishop Graff, of Salem, 
N. C, had died, August 29, 1782, a little more than three months 
after Seidel's decease, and the venerable Matthew Hehl, of Lititz, 
was the only Moravian bishop left in America. Ettwein's consecra- 
tion was deferred, however, until the arrival of deWatteville. It took 
place on June 25, 1784, in connection with the anniversary festival 
of Bethlehem. Bishop Hehl, at that time already in the eightieth 
year of his age, died on December 4, 1787. Ettwein was then the 
only Moravian bishop in America until 1790, when the Rev. John 
Andrew Huebner, of Bethlehem, and the Rev. John Daniel Koehler, 
of Salem, N. C, who had come to America with Bishop deWatte- 
ville, were consecrated to the episcopacy. Seidel had, as set forth 
in a previous explanation of the executive office, been regarded as 
the American "Provincial Helper" of the Unity's Elders' Confer- 
ence. Their several Helpers at the head of the Elders' Conferences 
of the American church-settlements had, together with the Admin- 
istrator of the Unity's estates in America, constituted a kind of 
cabinet of the Provincial Helper, called the Provincial Helper's 
Conference, all being appointees of the Unity's Elders' Conference, 
selected by them, subject to confirmation by lot. Now, under the 
order instituted by deWatteville, this individual position of Provincial 
Helper, as "Oeconomus" of the American settlements and congre- 
gations, was to cease, and the conference as a body were to jointly 
administer affairs, under directions. The title Provincial Helpers' 
Conference also ceased for a number of 3"ears and the long, unwieldj^ 

35 



530 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

one, "Conference of Helpers in General of the Congregations and 
Stations in Pennsylvania and adjacent parts," referred to in a pre- 
ceding note, was given them.^® 

The rationale of all this was to eliminate, under the policy of that 
period, all semblance of autonomy from the body of American settle- 
ments, congregations and stations, as an integral section (Province) 
of the Unity; to place them, like those in Germany, under the 
immediate control of the Unity's Elders' Conference more fully, 
this board holding direct relations to them severally, as congre- 
gations, and undertaking to deal across the ocean with all their 
internal affairs, the same as a governing board on the spot. Such 
a thing as an American Provincial Government did not really exist 
under this arrangement. There was no Synod, properly speaking, 
from the last such gathering in 1768 until 1817. The meetings that 
took its place were merely conferences of ministers, shorn of all power 
to legislate independently, even on the most trifling things. What 
may be called the Provincial Board by courtesy was only an admin- 
istrative agency of the Unity's Elders' Conference, composed of its 
appointees sent over from Europe, from time to time, as vacancies 
occurred. They possessed no power of independent action in any 
particular beyond what they were occasionally compelled to exercise 
in emergencies. A related feature of this policy was the abandon- 
ment of church extension, so far as embracing opportunities to 
organize further city and country congregations was concerned. The 
growth of those which did exist was restricted by the system then 
everywhere established, of making even admissions to membership 
subject to the use of the lot, and by imposing regulations upon them 
as closely akin to those of the exclusive settlements as possible, and 
as nearly uniform as possible, even in the most petty details, quite 
regardless of varying circumstances and classes of people. 

The only kind of extension taken into consideration under this 
regime was that invited by large land-owners who held out induce- 
ments for the founding of additional settlements after the model 
of Bethlehem. But one after another, these propositions, after inter- 
minable deliberations, came to nought in consequence of what the 
board in Germany concluded were insurmountable difficulties ; these 
being often matters of detail which from the standpoint of present- 
day views, seem unimportant and sometimes even petty. The rigid 



18 "Heifer Conferenz {it's ganze der Pennsylvanhchen imd umliegenjen Gemcinen und 
Posten'' 



1/78 1785- 531 

s_ystem which had been elaborated and everywhere imposed, required, 
in such cases, provision for every feature that entered into the organi- 
zation and equipment of the existing exclusive settlements, and when 
the means for such provision were not in sight the project must 
needs be abandoned. That under such a regime the Moravian 
Church in America, as a whole, as well as its several settlements and 
congregations, entered upon a stationary period, got out of touch 
with the spirit and movement of the country about them, became 
confirmed in an isolated, unique, quiescent character — self-absorbed 
and somewhat open to the charge of narrow self-complacency and 
conceit, like those in Europe — was natural and inevitable. That at 
Bethlehem and the other exclusive settlements, it was found by and 
by, that this isolation did not exclude human nature in any of its 
elements and phases ; did not sufifice to make all people perfectly 
good and harmonious, contented and happy, was just as natural and 
inevitable. On the other hand, the vitality preserved in spite of all 
the artificial restraints and trammels, so that these settlements did 
not become efifete in the exotic character forced upon them — a 
vitality which was able eventually to emancipate itself and adjust 
itself to surroundings that had moved far away from them in the 
development of the country — remains a matter of surprise. 

This stationary, exclusive and quiescent condition of Bethlehem 
was fixed by the results of deWatteville's visit. Such a more pro- 
nounced isolation of the Moravian villages was the alternative chosen 
when the question of future policy had to be decided after the Revo- 
lution. The other would have been to fully fall into line with the 
new general movements of the time. This would have required the 
entire abandonment of the church-village plan, and for many reasons 
deemed cogent, this was regarded as undesirable, impracticable, even 
fatal to Moravian ideals. The logic of the situation seemed to 
demand a decided course in one direction or the other. That which 
was taken greatly retarded the growth of the Moravian Church and 
accounts for its comparative smallness at the present time. Nearl)' 
fifty years passed before it began to organize new congregations 
again, and some old ones had, under this system, been permitted to 
die. But at Bethlehem, and its other exclusive settlements, it pre- 
sented one of the most interesting experiments in methods of reli- 
gious culture, municipal organization, regulation of business — adjust- 
ing supply and demand, taking care of the place and claim of each, 
preventing aggrandizement on the one hand and impoverishment 



532 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

on the other, making the milhonaire and the pauper ahke impos- 
sible — that can be found anywhere by the student of these matters. 

In its effects on the general spirit of Bethlehem, deWatteville's 
sojourn was highly beneficial. His personal influence in allaying 
friction, smoothing out the wrinkles, reducing the jarring that had 
been produced during the trying years of the Revolution, and in gen- 
erally toning up the esprit de corps, was very great. His earnest 
appeals to heart and conscience were effective in recalling to their 
better selves, some who had drifted away from the standards, and in 
checking the inroads of baleful tendencies, such as intemperate 
indulgence in strong drink, which had become a cause for serious 
alarm in some quarters and had borne some sad fruit. 

The entire system of finances was thoroughly examined and the 
agreements between Bethlehem and the Wardens of the Unity, as 
well as the Pennsylvania Sustentation Diacony, made in 1771, were 
renewed. Notwithstanding the grievous burdens of eight years of 
war and the heavy taxes which yet continued, the Bethlehem Con- 
gregation Diacony at the closing of accounts on Mav 31, 1784, not 
only showed no deficit for the year, but revealed that the amount 
for which its property in buildings stood obligated to the Wardens 
of the Unity — iio,ooo in 1771 — had been reduced to the extent of 
£3,500. It was found that the finances of the Sisters' House were 
in a gratifying condition. Those of the Widows' House showed a 
small deficit, due to the fact that there was less opportunity for carry- 
ing on productive industries, and that the rates for board had to 'be 
fixed very low on account of the indigence of most of the widows. 
The finances of the Brethren's House were not in good shape, owing 
to the long demoralization of most of the industries carried on by 
the single men, from which they had not recovered, the drain caused 
by the heavy war taxes and militia fines, which almost bankrupted 
their establishment, and a lack of loyalty and zeal in their common 
cause shown by some of the single men since the war. Some diffi- 
culty in the adjustment of wages to the price of living was also being 
experienced. It is stated, early in 1785, that the warden of the 
Brethren's House was finding some relief for the situation by the 
barter of products, especially from the oil-mill and from the oat and 
barley-huHing mill, for provisions in Philadelphia, enabling him to 
procure these cheaper than they could be furnished him through the 
Bethlehem store. In this connection the regulations of the time in 
the matter of mutual support between the various establishments of 



^77^ 1785- 533 

the place appear, for while the authorities acquiesced in this enter- 
prise on the part of the warden of the Brethren's House, under the 
peculiar circumstances, strong disapproval of the practice of some 
people of commissioning him to make purchases in the city, was offi- 
cially expressed. The people were admonished to patronize their 
own village store, just as each of them expected the support of his 
brethren and fellow-citizens in his particular trade or business. 

It is of interest to note that in connection with the need of farmers 
and of various craftsmen and artisans, such as shoemakers, tailors, 
linen-weavers, tinkers, a brazier and a coppersmith, then wanted in 
the industrial revival and advance, and to be secured from the church 
settlements in Europe, if possible, the decision was recorded when 
this matter was under discussion, that there should be no previous 
binding contract with such men, or advance of money for traveling 
expenses to America, for should any of them prove to be useless or 
unfaithful, the higher law of the place, as based on Christian brother- 
hood, would leave them a charge upon its resources, if indigent or 
sick. Thus, in its limited scope, Bethlehem, at that time, considered 
and pronounced upon the questions of pauper immigration and 
imported contract labor on which, in modern times, the United 
States Government makes laws. 

A final important reconstruction effected at the opening of the 
new era, under Bishop deWatteville's supervision, was that of the 
boarding-school for girls, to be yet mentioned in this chapter. It is 
an interesting fact that at this third epoch in the history of that 
department of Moravian work in Pennsylvania, his wife, the Countess 
Benigna, again took part in shaping its plan and course — she who 
had opened the original school for girls in Germantown, May 4, 
1742, and helped in its re-organization and permanent establishment 
at Bethlehem, January 5, 1749. The desire of various people outside 
the Moravian Church to have their daughters educated at Bethle- 
hem, which, as already stated, led to the thought of restoring the 
school to its original character on an enlarged scale, as a general 
boarding-school for girls, had been anticipated by action of the Gen- 
eral Synod of 1782. Such applications to the schools of the Church 
in Europe had there led to a similar move. Prior to 1769, both in 
Europe and America, all the children of Moravian settlements had 
been educated in their schools at the expense of the general treasury 
of the Unity. Then, this being no longer financially feasible, and 
more complete local organization being everywhere effected, only 



534 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the children of ministers and missionaries continued to be so cared 
for, and arrangements had to be made to support schools for the 
other children out of the several congregation diaconies. This new 
arrangement went into effect at Bethlehem in 1771, as was men- 
tioned in a previous chapter. 

The General Synod of 1782 was made attentive to a movement to 
so re-organize or newly establish schools in the church settlements 
of Germany and England, that the desire of outside people to place 
their children in such schools might be met and, at the same time, 
by means of the enlarged facilities and increased school income thus 
available, the very important end be gained to secure better school- 
ing for the village children without a heavier financial burden on the 
people ; while the presence of such boarding-scholars would, further- 
more, be a financial benefit to the several places in other ways. The 
Synod, taking the whole subject into consideration, concluded that 
this movement also indicated a mission which the Moravian settle- 
ments might fulfill in making educational work in their way, on this 
basis, a special department of Christian service to the public, and 
therefore officially authorized undertakings in this direction. 

Thus opened the new era of schools, both for boys and girls, in the 
Moravian villages, with the two classes of scholars — boarders and 
day-scholars ; the era of the boarding-schools in their modern char- 
acter, as one of the special departments of Moravian activity. In 
the boarding-school for girls at Bethlehem there had been, during 
the Revolution, a great decrease in the number of daughters of mis- 
sionaries from the West Indies and South America, and at this time, 
although it had not, like Nazareth Hall, been temporarily closed, 
there were only five inmates. After many deliberations, a scheme 
for the institution on the new basis was matured, and plans for the 
re-organization and re-opening of Nazareth Hall, as a boarding- 
school for boys, were worked out at the same time. 

October 2, 1785, the school for girls, thus re-organized, entered 
the new period of its existence with those five boarders, Susan Bagge, 
Rosina Friedman, Maria Heckewelder, Anna linger and Maria 
Unger as a nucleus, and eleven girls as day-scholars. Two former 
teachers, Elizabeth Burnet, serving since 1757, and Susan Langaard, 
retired ; also Juliana Esther Wapler, for many years the matron, and 
Anna Margaret Motz,for a while the stewardess. Two other teachers, 
Maria Elizabeth Beroth and Sulamith Nyberg, continued under the 
new order, performing also some of the duties of the retired matron 



1778 1785- 535 

and stewardess, while John Frederick Peter and his wife became 
curators of the estabhshment. The whole was in charge of the 
Head Pastor at Bethlehem, the Rev. John Andrew Huebner, as 
first ''Inspector," or Principal of the new period, and its quarters 
continued to be in the bell-turret building — "Old Seminary" or "bell 
house" — in which it was established in 1749. On October 3, eleven 
Bethlehem boys were taken to Nazareth Hall and that institution 
was re-opened with the Rev. Charles Gotthold Reichel as Principal 
and George Godfrey Miller and Lewis Huebener as teachers, while 
a little bovs' school was continued at Bethlehem. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Two Decades Under the Close Regime. 
1786— 1806. 

The re-establishment of Bethlehem on the basis of more complete 
conformity to the Herrnhut model caused it to become stationary 
amid surroundings that were all in flux politically, ecclesiastically, 
industriall)' and socially. This was, in accordance with the revised 
scheme, consummated step by step during the year 1786 and the first 
months of 1787. Bishop deWatteville and his wife, having finished 
their work in America, bade farewell to Bethlehem on June 4, 1787, 
and went to Philadelphia, where they had engaged passage for 
Europe on the brig Ruby, Captain Sam. Smith. They sailed on June 
12. They were accompanied by several other persons. One of 
these was Susan von Gersdorff, the superintendent of the Sisters' 
House during the Revolution, who returned to Germany. Bethle- 
hem was left to struggle with the experiment of extreme exclusivism 
amid conditions more adverse to such a regime than could have been 
found anywhere in civilized countries — with the experiment of strict 
paternal government at a time when the contagion of independence 
was in the air to such an extent that even the legitimate outcome 
of the Revolution in the creation of federal government had to fight 
for its life, when the war was over, with many who, after indepen- 
dence had been achieved, wanted also to be independent even of a 
central government of their own. The spirit of the brewing French 
Revolution, already in the atmosphere of the times, moving the 
thinking and the unthinking, the educated and the ignorant in their 
several ways, could not be entirely kept out of even Bethlehem. An 
aversion to being controlled became contagious, especially among 
the younger men of the place, from the more intelligent craftsmen 
and mechanics who read books and newspapers and discussed the 
great movements of the time, down to the stable boys, who got ideas 
from others of their kind and tugged at their leading strings. The 
old heroic days of Bethlehem were a thing of the past, never to 
return. 

536 



1786 i8o6. 537 

The spirit and aims of earlier times were specially recalled and 
fervently impressed upon the people on one memorable occa- 
sion during this period. This was when the fiftieth anniversary of 
the organization of the settlement — Bethlehem's first jubilee — was 
•celebrated with high festivities on June 25, 1792. A festal eve ser- 
vice of humble confession, fervent prayer and grateful praise was 
held on the previous evening. At six o'clock in the morning, the 
trombonists, stationed on the belvedere or roof-terrace of the Breth- 
ren's House, ushered in the festival with stirring chorales. At half- 
past eight, the people gathered to morning prayer. At the next ser- 
vice, at ten o'clock, a historical sketch of Bethlehem and several 
original poems treating of the theme of the occasion were read. 
There was lovefeast at three o'clock, the Holy Communion was 
celebrated at seven o'clock, and after that the day was closed with 
evening prayer around a pyramid of light in the square in front of 
the bell-turret house or old seminary. The entire town entered into 
the spirit of the day. Illuminations were arranged in the evening 
in nearly ever)- building of the place, and the feeling prevailed that 
all ages and classes had a part in this great festival. There was an 
uplifting of spirit in the contemplation of noble men and women, and 
noble deeds, awakened by the historical review. The thought was 
impressed anew that Bethlehem had been founded to the glory of 
God, and had been preserved through tribulation and peril by His 
mighty hand for a further mission in His Name. 

The festival was beneficial in its effects on the general tone of the 
place, and it evidently made many a one attentive to ideals that should 
not be abandoned. But it did not permanently revive the aspirations 
of the early years, or kindle anew the first love. To be heroically 
altruistic was not in the atmosphere of the time. The spirit of self- 
denying co-operation for the maintenance of ideals had given way, 
among many, to that of merely striving to better individual circum- 
stances, either by leaving and seeking their fortune in the world or by 
staying and trying to get all they could out of the establishment with 
the least necessary return on their part ; some doing this by agitation 
and clamor, other by circumvention. The former — those who left^ 
deserved more credit than the latter and, although their depar- 
ture often saddened the hearts of the village fathers, they caused 
them less trouble and did not resort to dishonorable little ways of 
seeking their own interests, as the latter frequently did. Many other 
men, both married and single, were good and faithful and true. Thev 



538 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVAN'IA. 

were yet in sympathy with the old ideals, and continued to associate 
their place and calling with missionary work and with the service of 
Christ. In them the men who were sincerely trying to maintain 
exalted standards always found support. There were yet others 
who, although quiescent, so far as action for or against estabhshed 
ideas, principles and methods was concerned, were nevertheless a 
burden, for they perpetually murmured and found fault. The growth 
of this spirit, under such a regime, among those who lacked the force 
or the opportunity to do anything alse, was natural and became a 
prominent characteristic of Moravian villagers. The system was 
well adapted to developing a chronic disposition to grumble among 
persons who were so inclined and who in their narrow confines were 
given to magnifying the smallest occasions for dissatisfaction. With 
all there was of comfort and unconcern for the lesser spirits, in the 
state of being entirely taken care of, there appeared with it also the 
common propensity of persons who are beneficiaries to childishly 
dwell upon little grievances, supposed inequalities in the bestowal 
of favors, partiality in assigning places or tasks and the like. 
Those who had more energy and were engaged in occupations that 
gave them more importance, but who did not figure in controlling 
circles, chafed under an order of things that subjected them to so 
much official surveillance, and all their doings and affairs to such 
close and constant supervision. 

What the old devotion and enthusiasm could submit to without 
growing restive, the spirit of those last decades of the century found 
very galling at times. The men, both at the top and in minor places, 
who were set in authority under the system, differed in ability, 
force and tact, as well as in heart. Some were able to control easily 
and hold good will, some could even inspire subordinates with loy- 
alty and zeal. Others were unable to be anything but a hardship 
to those under them. Not all could in a pleasing manner pursue the 
strictness and minuteness of the worked-out instructions under which 
they performed their official duties. Some were disposed to impress 
their own importance by being minutely severe and playing the mar- 
tinet. There were men then, just as there are now, who quickly 
grew great by being put into some little office and being clothed 
with a little authority. Under such it was less easy for persons to 
patiently bear the yoke, and their assumptions often provoked 
insubordination and caused friction that under larger minded and 
wiser men would not have appeared. During the first years after 



1786 i8o6. S39 

the Revolution, more difficulty was experienced in all these respects 
than some years later, when the machinery of the place ran smoother 
and the period of serious new jarring and friction had not opened. 

In numerous features, however, the life of the place was a very 
attractive one in its quiet retirement, its orderly industry, its degree 
of social equality and harmony hardly to be met with anywhere else 
except in similar Moravian villages, its average comfort among all 
classes, its genial intercourse which among many tempered the fault- 
finding spirit into a harmless habit, its cultivation of much aesthetic 
taste under the unpretentious plainness, particularly in music, and 
the picturesque externals of the situation. Such characteristics were 
usually charming to people who visited Bethlehem and did not 
come into contact with the things that were less pleasing, for these 
commonly escaped the attention of the outsider. The latter, which 
have thus been cursorily sketched, can indeed hardly become known 
and would not be associated now with those idyllic days except 
through an examination of the minutes of official boards. These 
records reveal how difficult it was to regulate some things and some 
men, and they give an insight into the sombre features of the situa- 
tion. 

Some of the difficulties were occasioned, of course, by the attempt 
to operate, in all particulars, the over-wrought system that was 
imposed, often giving rise to serious embarrassments in quite 
trivial matters without compensating benefit resulting from the 
methods. It is true also that it was the official custom of those days, 
when treating of the conduct of people, to make use of language, in 
the way of allusion, that conveys the impression of something far 
more serious than really lay in many a case, so that such allusions 
must be taken with caution and with a proper understanding of the 
official expressions in vogue, in justice to many an individual referred 
to whose ofifence was really but a trifling thing. It is true, further- 
more, that the paternal administration of those days was disposed 
to attach too much odium in the relative estimate of various offences, 
to the particular one of insubordination, a very undefined misde- 
meanor ; one in which very insignificant occurrences were sometimes 
magnified by small men, jealous of their authority, into grave 
ofifences, and the offender was occasionally as much official^ sinned 
against as sinning — like a child provoked to wrath. Nevertheless, 
many of the difficulties were experienced in the effort to suppress 
propensities and to keep out influences that were really evil. One 
most frequently referred to was intemperance in the use of strong 



540 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

drink, mentioned in the previous chapter, which seems to have pre- 
vailed in some circles — as generally throughout the country at that 
period — to a deplorable extent. This was the most prominent evil 
in the declining establishment of the single men at Christiansbrunn, 
which finally sank into decadence that became hopeless. It had to 
be closed out on April i, 1796, when the important farm and indus- 
tries were put in charge of a few competent and trustworthy men, 
mainly men with families, and several of the deteriorated bachelors 
were given a mere asylum there under watchful restraint. 

Another flagrant vice which was particularly characteristic 
of that age throughout the country generally and at Bethlehem 
found its way into some circles to an extent that called forth earnest 
pastoral admonition, was the practice of coarse profanity. A spirit 
of irreverence, indifference and levity, over against sacred things, 
among many inmates of the Brethren's House and even among some 
heads of families, and a disposition to neglect the services of the 
sanctuai-y under all kinds of flimsy pretexts, occasioned the Elders' 
Conference of the village much anxiety. In all these things, the 
taint of bad influences during war times and the invading spirit of 
the age in revolt against long accepted religious tenets, ecclesiastical 
traditions and even moral restraints, did no little damage in Beth- 
lehem during those closing years of the century and taxed the 
resources of its guardians. Possibly if the policy of complete open- 
ing up had been adopted at this period, in harmony with the general 
course of things in the country, the result might have been disastrous 
to the spiritual and material trusts providentially committed to Beth- 
lehem. Perhaps the system, given the name of "close regime" in the 
heading of this chapter, was at that time, all things being considered, 
the best, as a means of conserving the body of resources centered at 
the place for more effective future unfolding and use under other 
conditions. 

The official personnel of Bethlehem, during the twenty years 
embraced in this chapter, did not change very frequently, so far as 
the most important positions were concerned, but it included a con- 
siderable number of minor functionaries, particularly in connection 
with the establishment of the single men, who came and went, serving 
short terms. Bishop John Ettwein remained at the head of the Amer- 
ican General Board until old age and infirmity compelled him to 
retire on November 26, 1801. He died soon after that, January 2, 
1802, and on January 5, his remains were laid to rest aside of the 



17S6 i8o6. 541 

grave of Bishop Nathanael Seidel. His funeral was attended by a 
great concourse of people from the surrounding country, including 
three clergymen of other denominations. The General Board had 
decided, in February prior to his retirement, to request, when the 
General Synod of that year should meet, that provisions might be 
made for the continual residence of two bishops in Pennsylvania, in 
order that the embarrassments resulting several times before from 
the old age and incapacity of the single one resident in this country 
might not occur again. Under the system existing at that time, one 
was singled out as "Presiding Bishop,"' placed by the Unity's Elders' 
Conference at the head of its Conference of Helpers, the General 
Board in Pennsylvania. 

Ettwein was succeeded in this position by Bishop George Henry 
Loskiel, who arrived from Europe on July 23, 1802. The Rev. John 
Andrew Huebner, Head Pastor and President of the Elders' Confer- 
ence at Bethlehem — GcmeinJvclfer — and first Principal of the re-organ- 
ized boarding-school for girls, was consecrated a bishop on April 11, 
1790, and in May removed to Lititz, where he was 'stationed until 
1801, w'hen he attended the General Synod in Europe and remained 
there as a member of the Unity's Elders' Conference. The Rev. John 
Augustus Klingsohr, a very popular preacher and a zealous, faithful 
man, before this stationed at Lititz, became his successor at Beth- 
lehem in May, 1790, continuing in that office until his death, Novem- 
ber 5, 1798. The head pastorate at Bethlehem, after his death, was 
filled ad interim by Bishop Ettvi'ein, assisted by the Rev. Christian 
Frederick Schaaf, until the appointment of the Rev. Jacob Van 
Vleck to the office by the Unity's Elders' Conference in 1799, after 
serving since 1790 as Huebner's successor in the principalship of the 
boarding-school and as regular preacher at Bethlehem. In the spring 
of 1802, he removed to Nazareth and his successor in 1800, as 
principal and regular preacher, the Rev. Andrew Benade, became 
associate Head Pastor, with the Rev. John Gebhard Cunow ad 
interim, until the arrival of Bishop Loskiel, who had been appointed 
to this office by the authorities in Europe, along with the presidency 
of the Board of General Helpers. 

In May, 1790, the Rev. John Schropp became Warden of Bethle- 
hem and filled this office until his death, July 4, 1805, when he was 
succeeded by the Rev. John Yungberg. Others connected with the 
pastorate corps during that period were — a short time until his death 
in 1791 — the Rev. John Frederick Peter, Jr., assisting the Rev. Paul 



542 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Muenster, who died October 15, 1792, in special oversight of the 
married people, along with other duties. Muenster was followed 
in this position, in 1793, by the Rev. Jeremiah Dencke, formerly war- 
den, who died, May 28, 1795. After a temporary arrangement until 
November, 1798, this department of pastoral service, together with 
various other positions and duties, passed into the charge of the 
Rev. Christian Frederick Schaaf, who filled the place more than 
twenty years — the longest consecutive term of service in connection 
with the Moravian pastorate, in the history of Bethlehem. Others 
who assisted in the pastorate during the period from 1786 to 1806 
were the veteran missionary, the Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube, from 
May, 1787, to March, 1791, and then, after a brief term of service at 
Emmaus, where his wife died, from October, 1793, to the end of this 
period and beyond to his death, March 20, 1808, at the great age of 
ninety-three years. During his years at Bethlehem he also rendered 
much service as a secretary of boards and, like Schaaf, Van Vleck, 
Dencke, Oerter, Immanuel Nitschmann and some others, with his 
superior musical abilities. Another assistant, 1786 to 1787, was the 
Rev. Lewis Frederick Boehler, a son of Bishop Peter Boehler. 

Jacob Van Vleck, when he was selected to be principal of the 
boarding-school was succeeded, as chaplain of the Brethren's House 
and spiritual overseer of the single men, by his assistants, John Mar- 
tin Beck, Nathanael Brown and John Christian Reich by turns, from 
1789 to November, 1791, when this office was filled by the Rev. 
George Godfrey Mueller until September, 1793, the Rev. John Fred- 
erick Frueaufif until November, 1797, the Rev. John Frederick Stadi- 
ger until April, 1802, the Rev. John Constantine Mueller to November, 
1804, and then the Rev. John Frederick Loeffier to the end of the 
period under review and beyond ; he at the same time performing the 
duties of warden for the single men during part of his term of service. 
The wardenship of the Brethren's House, after 1790, was brought into 
closer relation to the general wardenship of the village, on account 
of the precarious state of the finances and the growing disposition 
in the Brethren's House to proceed incautiously and incur debts. 
The incumbent was no longer such an important and independent 
functionary, but, shorn of some authority, was rather merely a 
steward acting under directions. John Gambold was in office until 
March, 1790 — a faithful, conscientious man struggling with great 
difficulties — assisted, prior to that time, by Samuel Gottlieb Kramsch, 
who also assisted the chaplain and was school-master of the boys ; 



17S6 i8o6. 543 

Charles Jacob Dre^-spring, and John Christian Reich, who then for 
a while filled the position alone. After that the chaplain was at the 
same time the steward, for, as arrangements then were, he had less 
of actual business to oversee than was formerly the case. 

The Rev. John Christian Alexander deSchweinitz, Administrator of 
the property of the Unity in Pennsylvania from 1771, returned to 
Europe in 1798 and became a member of the Unity's Elders' Confer- 
ence. He left Bethlehem with his family on April 10 and sailed, April 
22. His assistant, the Rev. John Gebhard Cunow, who arrived from 
Europe, July 30, 1796, and had therefore been in training for the office 
nearly two years, became his successor and thus acquired a very 
prominent and important position at Bethlehem. He was a man who 
made himself felt, not only in point of ability, but in self-asserting 
force, a disposition to be arbitrary and dictatorial in the conduct of 
affairs, and an uncompromising insistence upon every minute regula- 
tion that had been fixed, no matter what kind of difficulties might be 
involved in enforcing it. As the nature of his duties brought him 
into close and constant connection with financial and industrial mat- 
ters of all kinds and with village affairs generally, these character- 
istics were decidedly felt by those who had the most to do with its 
business concerns. 

Besides these positions filled by ordained men, some other con- 
spicuous places and their incumbents may be mentioned. The first 
postmaster of Bethlehem appointed by the United States Govern- 
ment was Joseph Horsfield. His commission dated from June 12, 
1792. He also filled the ofifice of Justice of the Peace for a while, 
from 1794. The second postmaster was George Huber, February 
13, 1802, and the third was Francis Christian Kampmann, February 
20, 1803. He was the incumbent at the close of the period covered 
by this chapter. The apothecary shop of Bethlehem, in charge of 
Dr. John Matthew Otto until his death in 1786, had the names of 
several men connected with it besides Timothy Horsfield, Jr., for a 
number of years his chief assistant. These were Dr. Christian Fred- 
erick Kampmann, who had come to Pennsylvania in 1781. He had 
served as physician at Hope, N. J., some time prior to Dr. Otto's 
death. Then he came to Bethlehem as physician and apothecary until 
the appointment of a successor in 1790, when, in September, he again 
went to Hope and remained until 1808, and then settled finally in 
Bethlehem. He was assisted for a while after 1786, by the young 



544 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

surgeon Matthew Otto, Jr., who, although inheriting his famous 
father's talents, was not like him in steadiness and reliability of char- 
acter. He died in May, 1797, at Allentown. Another assistant for 
some time was James Cruickshank, better known as steward and 
accountant of the boarding-school for girls, who died in 1805. Yet 
another was Joseph Dixon, who in August, 1794, went to Emmaus 
as physician. 

One of the regularly educated physicians of the period, Dr. God- 
frey Henry Thumhardt, was temporarily located at Bethlehem after 
his arrival from the mission field in the West Indies, until August, 
1 79 1, when he went to Lititz and was identified with that place until 
his death. Dr. John Eberhard Freitag arrived from Europe in 1790, 
to be the regular physician and apothecary of Bethlehem. His long 
term of service reached far into the new century. In Xovember, 
1795, came Dr. John Frederick Rudolphi, from Europe, who later 
settled for a while near Lititz and for a longer time at Reading. It 
is a little surprising to read of such specialties in the healing art 
being countenanced at Bethlehem in those days as the coming of 
Dr. Newbury to the place, in 1792, to instruct Joseph Dixon in the 
mysteries of magnetic healing. 

The Sun Inn also changed hands in 1790, when John Christian 
Ebert, who enjoyed the distinction of entertaining General Wash- 
ington, retired from the position and, on June i, Abraham Levering, 
whose wife had the reputation of being a particularly popular hostess, 
took charge. He was inn-keeper until Jtme, 1799, when he was 
succeeded by John Lennert, who on June i, 1805, retired in favor 
of Christian Gottlob Paulus, who was landlord at the time which 
closes this chapter. The era of regular mail stages, coming and 
going in the dignity of Government contract, opened during the 
decade embraced in the connection of Abraham Levering with 
the famous inn. Before that, the "stage wagon" to Philadelphia 
was a more humble enterprise of intermittent existence. A more 
satisfactory service than had existed since the days of George 
Klein was established in the summer of 1785 by Frederick Beitel, 
farmer general and former wagon-master, of many adventures in 
Revolutionary times. He expressly stated, however, that he did not 
wish to be bound by an advertisement of regular trips. How long 
he was on the road in this new capacity is not clear. Now, however, 
the opening of regular post roads brought better system into this 
important branch of public service and increased its speed and con- 



1/86 i8o6. 545 

venience. The stage coach, arriving and departing regularly, became 
a part of the life of the Sun Inn, and after 1795 the blowing of the 
stage horn when the vehicle came within hearing distance of the 
Lehigh, was no longer listened for in the direction of the Irish stone 
quarry, from which the old Philadelphia road had, since the days 
when Bethlehem was founded, led to the place, for in that year the 
road across the mountain, now yet spoken of as "the Philadelphia 
road," was opened. 

In connection with all this, a more conspicuous epoch-making 
enterprise had been consummated at Bethlehem which terminated 
the history of the Crown Inn and the need of a house of entertain- 
ment on the south side, and relegated the ferry to the realm of 
things that were, by proudly carrying all who sought a tavern at 
the place quickly and on an unmoving structure across the river to 
the Sun. This was the building of the first bridge over the Lehigh. 
Towards the close of 1791, when the construction of a turn-pike from 
Philadelphia was being agitated by parties in the city and along the 
road — for road-making in all directions was then a leading enter- 
prise — Warden Schropp and other men at Bethlehem who were 
studying the external problems of the time, revived, with more vigor 
than before, the oft-mooted project of a bridge. In that first bridge 
scheme the new principal of the boarding-school, Jacob Van Vleck, 
was interested, for his institution was then the most important estab- 
lishment in the town, and its patrons probably expressed the wish 
that conveyance across the stream on a foundation more firm than 
the ferry might be secured. A committee appointed, January 2, 1792, 
to deliberate on the matter and report, declared, three days later, in 
favor of postponing it because of other proposed undertakings. The 
committee consisted of Bishop Ettwein, Paul Muenster, Francis 
Thomas, the carpenter; Frederick Beitel, the farmer and wagoner; 
Valentine Fuehrer, and Massa Warner, connected with the fortunes 
of the Crown Inn and the ferry. Perhaps the last two were not 
unbiased members of the committee and supported Bishop Ettwein 
in reporting adversely. Ettwein stoutly opposed the building of a 
bridge at that time, for he favored first enlarging the hotel accom- 
modations, which seemed to him and some others to be the more 
pressing need. Those who were urging the bridge knew that when 
his opposition had to be reckoned with ; there must be some special 
effort put forth to win the da}^ Therefore, the opportunity was 
seized on January 23, when he was on a visit at Plope, to call a meet- 
-■,6 



546 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ing of the voting men of the village in Geineinrath or Common Coun- 
cil, to test the prevailing opinion when the most forceful opponent 
was not present. The result was a practically unanimous vote in 
favor of a bridge. When Father Ettwein returned and learned of 
this sly maneuver he declared that he would have nothing to do with 
any further meetings about the bridge, and he kept his word. He did 
not actively oppose it but quietly let things take their course, and the 
bridge was built. The projectors offered, as conciliatory conditions, 
that no indebtedness should be incurred by the Congregation treas- 
ury; that a sum, each year, equal to the average annual income from 
the ferry for the preceding ten years, should be guaranteed the 
treasury from the receipts of the bridge ; that the regulations in all 
respects should be under the control of the village authorities; that 
the stock — for a stock company was to be formed — should be kept 
in the hands of citizens of Bethlehem. 

The Act of Assembly authorizing it was passed, April 3, 1792, 
and signed by Thomas Mifflin, the first Governor of the State under 
the new constitution. Contracts for furnishing material and building 
the bridge were let in due process of time, and at last, fine 
hemlock timber cut in the forests along the Panther Creek, 
began to be floated down and drawn ashore near the ferry. 
In the spring of 1794 operations were properly started. On May 
12, the wood-work was commenced, and on June 25, the first pier 
was completed. But between difficulties encountered because of 
inexperience in building a bi"idge across so wide a stream as the 
Lehigh, and a set-back through damage done by high water, the work 
was delayed, so that it was Saturday, September 27, before the 
announcement could be made, "the bridge is finished." The next 
day it was opened for free travel and on Monday the taking of toll 
commenced. The structure cost $7,800. The amount was dis- 
tributed in shares of $100. This first bridge, like its successor, built 
in 1816 and opened for travel October 19, was an uncovered one. 

The old ferry was abandoned as soon as the bridge was finished, 
and on October 31, 1794, the Crown Inn was closed as a public house 
and became a farm house. The last inn-keeper, from May, 1792. to 
that time, was George Schindler. The need of additional hotel 
accommodations was met in another way. by considering it in con- 
nection with the long-felt need of more ample quarters for the vil- 
lage store. There had been a project in the minds of some to erect 
a more commodious inn on the south side, but the interjection of 
the bridge-building plan caused, instead of that, the entire abandon- 



1786 i8o6. 547 

ment of the tavern on that side, as has been seen. On February 13, 
1792, the Elders' Conference, finding that there was a determination 
to build the bridge, referred to the Village Board of Supervision — 
Aufseher Collegium — a substitute for that tavern plan. This was to 
erect a new building for the store and then fit up the whole of the old 
stone building on the Ladengasse or store street — the present Market 
Street — that is, the part which had been occupied by the store and 
the adjoining "Horsfield house," later "Van Vleck house" — as an 
adjunct to the Sun Inn. Further developments preserved this inter- 
esting connection between store and hotel, for the new store, the 
site of which was selected February 16, 1792, "next to Joseph Hors- 
field's house," became Bethlehem's second hotel, the Eagle, which 
will be referred to again in proper connection. 

During that year and the following one, the enterprise dragged 
heavily. Several times evidences of a "hitch" in the affair appear — - 
whether because of a coolness between Christian Heckewelder, the 
store-keeper, and the village fathers, or a lack of entire confidence on 
their part in the ability of the store-keeper to superintendent building 
operations, or a conflict of authority between Heckewelder and War- 
den Schropp, is not clear. When the plan of the building was dis- 
cussed and preliminary approved, on August 2, 1792, the Elders' Con- 
ference saw fit to record the decision that the warden and not the 
store-keeper was to superintend its construction. They twice reiter- 
ated this decree during the following months, the second time adding 
the remark that there was much unpleasantness connected with the 
whole matter. The store was moved into the new building before 
its completion in 1794. On August 30, of that year, it was stated 
that the entire building was about finished and the assistant, John 
Christian Reich, moved into it. This new store was finally gotten 
into proper order and became a more elaborate business than that 
in the old building, but Christian Heckewelder was transferred to 
Emmaus to take charge of the little country shop at that place, and 
then to Hope, N. J., and was succeeded at Bethlehem by Owen Rice. 
He was a son of the Rev. Owen Rice who came to Pennsylvania with 
the "First Sea Congregation," had, from 1784 to 1790, been in charge 
of the inn at Nazareth and then of the store there, and in November, 
1792, would have been selected to open the adjunct inn at Bethlehem 
in the former store-building, if the fathers of the Nazareth Elders' 
Conference had concurred. His son, Owen Rice the third, had 
been "store-boy" for Christian Heckewelder for a season, receiving 
his first mercantile training; but for some reason, relations were not 



548 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

perfectly agreeable between him and his master, for on one occasion 
Heckewelder, who seems to have been unfortunate in encountering 
the cross-grained side of various persons, complained of young Rice 
that he gave him much trouble — perhaps by "insubordination" — and 
made life grievous for him — "machte ihm das Lebcn saur" — so that two 
members of the Elders' Conference had to be deputed to interview 
the young man and persuade him to desist from causing his master 
heaviness. 

Thus in divers little ways the surface of business life at Beth- 
lehem was rufifled in connection with Heckewelder's administration, 
but when Owen Rice, father of the aforesaid youthful Owen, 
was established in charge of it, things moved more smoothly and 
prosperously at the new stand; for he was not only a highly capable 
but a popular and much esteemed citizen and business man. During 
the early years of his administration there are evidences of 
gradual but very modest additions to the range of stock carried — 
things whfch some, who yet cherished the notions of the Spartan 
times of Bethlehem, looked upon as ministering to the frivolities of 
the world ; such things as lay in the direction of slight ornamentation 
in dress. Even such articles as ribbons of divers' colors and glittering 
beads could be purchased there by parents who wished to brighten 
the hearts of their little girls, when taking the last stroll about the 
village with them, before leaving them at the boarding-school to 
enter upon their first struggle with home-sickness. 

This institution was becoming increasingly important to the village 
in various ways, not only to the inn and the store, but also to other 
establishments and lines of industry. Already in 1789, it had out- 
grown its primitive quarters and the question of better accommo- 
dations had begun to be discussed. August 16, of that year, the 
Elders' Conference of Bethlehem concluded that a new and larger 
building was needed and, at a session of the General Conference of 
Elders on the 22nd, this view was concurred in and three preliminary 
points were agree to : the new building must be erected on school 
account and not on account of the Congregation treasury; a stone 
building would be preferable to a frame one ; the two most eligible 
sites would be in the rear of the old school building — where the 
Parochial School now stands — or east of the Widows' House where 
the cow-stable and the old log kitchen of the Sisters" House — "an 
eye-sore"- — stood. The latter site was preferred by some officials, 
but the superintendent, stewardess and chief women of the Sisters' 



1 786 1806. 549 

House entered decided objections, because of the ruin that would 
be wrought to the large and conveniently located garden of that 
establishment. The subject was discussed in Common Council of 
the village on September 10. The site back of the old school was 
selected in deference to the wishes of those who plead for the Sisters' 
House garden. The sisters promised to have the unsightly old 
kitchen removed as soon as possible, and the locality put into more 
attractive shape. It may be added here that alread)' in 1782, the 
Widows' House had become so crowded that its chapel was parti- 
tioned up into dwelling-rooms, and that some years later the plan 
was entertained of building a separate but communicating wing to 
afford a new chapel with a refectory in the basement ; but in 
September, 1793, it was decided to extend the main building east- 
ward and in 1794 this extension, as noted in an earlier chapter, was 
completed in the direction of the spot first had in mind for the new 
boarding-school building. Plans for the new school building had 
been submitted and approved, September 11, 1789. It was to be 
built of stone, one full story high, forty by fifty feet in dimensions, 
with four large rooms on the main floor, a basement under the 
entire building for refectory and cellar and an attic for dormitory 
purposes, to contain several separate apartments sufficient for the 
accommodation of forty to fifty girls. The only alteration of the 
plan was that in November it was concluded to have a broken roof 
so that such long timbers as the original plan called for would not be 
recjuired, and the dormitories could be more advantageously con- 
structed. The building committee consisted of Joseph Horsfield, 
John Christian Hasse, John Heckewelder, then sojourning at Beth- 
lehem, John Andrew Huebner, then yet principal, with James Cruick- 
shank, steward and book-keeper of the school as payjnaster, and 
John Schropp, warden, and Paul Muenster, ex-warden of the village, 
as advisory members. The building was commenced that- fall and 
during the winter building material was collected and prepared, so 
that in the spring it might proceed rapidly. On Sunday afternoon. 
May 2, 1790 — Jacob Van Vleck being now principal — the corner- 
stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies. In a leaden box 
deposited in the stone was^ placed a document of the customary 
character, in which were recorded the names of the eighty-eight 
boarders and day-scholars and all who had entered since 1786; the 
officials and ten teachers connected with the school and their prede- 
cessors since 1785: the names of all the men and women belonging 



550 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to the Elders' Conference and the men belonging to the Board of 
Supervisors — Aufseher Collegium, formerly translated into English 
by some in the literal enough, but rather pompous and, in view of 
their functions, inappropriate title "College of Overseers"^ — the 
names of the General Conference of Helpers, conducting the afifairs 
of the Moravian Church in the Northern States for the Unity's 
Elders' Conference in Europe, and the names of the latter body. 

The building, although practically finished the following autumn, 
was not occupied until the spring of 1791. On April 12, it was 
formally dedicated and taken possession of. Beds and other furniture 

I The Elders' Conference, or Board of Elders, consisted of all the local clergy in official 
position — they have been mentioned in this chapter — the wives of those who were married 
and five other women in office : Juliana van Gammem and Catherine Lembke in the Widows' 
House, and Elizabeth Lewis, Anna Dorothea von Marschall and Verona Schneider in the 
Sisters' House. 

The Board of External Supervision consisted of de Schweinitz, Muenster, Reich and 
Oerter, already mentioned, and the following : John Andrew Borhek, William Boehler, Sr., 
Joseph Horsfield, Henry Lindemeyer and Matthew Witke. 

It may be added that, besides this official personnel, the Common Council of the village 
— this term is adopted for Gemeinrath in the character of that time to which the name in 
modern use. Church Council, does not suit, for town and church were then one — was made 
up, in 1790, in this wise : besides the above boards as ex-officio members, there were 10 
married couples, 2 widowers, 6 single men, lo widows, 18 single women from the respective 
classes (choirs) of the population, drawn by lot from candidates chosen by ballot. The 
following persons who were masters of trades or were holding positions by appointment, 
were, by virtue of their office, members, in 1790 : iVIatthew Weiss, the dyer; Jacob Rick- 
secker, the fuller ; Charles Weinecke, the tanner ; John Kornmann, the currier ; Herman 
Loesch, the miller ; Christian Ebert, the inn-keeper ; Frederick Beitel, the farmer ; Chris- 
tian Heckewelder, the store-keeper ; Schmick, the baker; Christian Hornig, the forester; 
George .Stoll, the saw-miller ; Massa Warner, the ferryman; Valentine Fuehrer, inn-keeper 
at the Crown ; Dr. Kampmann, the Physician ; Abraham Anders, head sacristan ; John 
Jungmann, connected with sustentation affairs; Joseph Horslield and Francis Thomas, in 
their capacity as cicerones ; Andrew Borhek and William Boehler, as curators respectively 
of the Widows' and Sisters' Houses ; Christian F. Oerter, the book-keeper ; the widow 
Mary ApoUonia Weber, as assistant to the head sacristan; Detlef Delfs and Eva Lanius, nurses ; 
Mary Catherine Gerhardt, stewardess in the Sisters' House ; Elizabeth Beckel, attendant 
upon visitors ; Jacob Friis, itinerant minister of the neighborhood. 

When it is considered that all of these positions were, by previously fi.\-ed arrangement, 
represented in the Council, and all the members of the two village boards were ex-officio 
members and the rest of its membership were drawn by lot from the candidates elected, it 
will be apparent how firmly the situation was held in the grasp of the " close regime," and 
how very little opportunity there was for a choice by the people in making up this body 
which nominally represented the vox popiili. For a few years before the Revolution the 
Geuteinrath was really a town meeting, composed of all the adult male population and 
a number of women in office. 







2tf^ .^-> 




^;^ -^piiM ,.,^ ^\ ^^ ^^ 




VIEWS FRONT AND REAR OF THE SEMINARY OF 1790 
THE BOYS' SCHOOL HOUSE OF 1822 



1786 i8o6. 551 

were moved into it in tlie forenoon and in tlie afternoon the forty-five 
boarding scliolars and thieir six tutoresses, with tlie clergy and other 
chief men and women of the village, passed in ceremonious procession 
up from the old to the new building, where elaborate exercises were 
held. Thus began school history at the spot where the present 
generation of Bethleheraites are accustomed to see the troops of 
boys and girls who make up the day-school and the Sunday-school 
of the Moravian Church, gather about buildings more commodious 
but certainly less picturesque than that massive stone structure with 
its quaint curbed roof and heavy overhanging eaves and its embow- 
ering willows which, after serving a quarter of a century as board- 
ing-school and then for more than forty years as a dwelling and, in 
part, as school quarters for some years, had to be destroyed because 
those who then controlled such things were immovable in their 
decision that no place could be found at which to erect a Parochial 
School building, except by demolishing the old stone house, which 
many wished to see spared. 

Some of the most classical memories of the famous institution 
which in subsequent years adopted the name Seminary for Young 
Ladies in preference to boarding-school for girls, are clustered about 
that old building which served as its second home ; and certainly 
the largest comparative number of specially interesting and distin- 
guished famil}- names figure on its roster during the twenty-four 
years of its history in that house, when it did not aspire to any more 
assuming name than simply boarding-school. If the diaries of those 
years had been kept in the manner of the earlieir periods, there 
would undoubtedly be many allusions to persons about whom it is 
of interest now to read even trifling incidents, the larger number of 
whom were attracted to Bethlehem by the school more than by any- 
thing else. The occasional references to notable visitors are princi- 
pally when foreign Ambassadors, Ministers and Consuls came to see 
the town, as the common custom of such personages was. Now 
and then the name of some Governor, Congressman, Judge of the 
Supreme Court, or eminent scholar and educator appears. Among 
the latter class of public men was the Rev. Dr. Stiles, President of 
Yale College, who was in Bethlehem several times, had some corre- 
spondence with Bishop Ettwein on various subjects and received 
sundry books treating of the history, doctrines and missions of the 
Moravian Church to be added to the library of his institution. The 
last known visit to the place by one of the Penns occurred in 1787, 



552 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

when John Penn, son of Thomas — often called John Penn the 
poet, to distinguish him from his cousin of that name, the last 
Proprietary' Governor — was in Bethlehem and felt his muse stirred 
to indite some lines to its memor}' which are to be found in his 
"Common Place Book," in possession of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania. - 

The most interesting visit of that period, in so far as it has added 
another to the published accounts of Bethlehem, was that of the 
famous Duke de la Rochefoucauld, who was pursuing his obser- 
vations and experiments in agriculture and economics; and naturally 
therefore investigated things at Bethlehem with particular attention. 
His visit occurred in June, 1797. The diary of that time, in its prosy 
brevity, disposes of his presence with the statement that "a French 
Duke was here and made very minute inquiries about all our arrange- 
ments." Moving about in the quality of a simple, untitled gentle- 
man, he annoimced himself as Monsieur Liancourt, using the name 
of another of his family estates, and probably did not encounter the 
ignorant criticisms for so doing, which certain quarrelsome relig- 
ionists in Pennsylvania who knew more about polemics than they did 
about etiquette, bestowed upon Count Zinzendorf in 1742, for 
announcing himself as von Thuernstein. This French nobleman 
came to Bethlehem with a letter of introduction from Alexander 
Dallas, Secretary of the Commonwealth, acting in the matter for 
Governor Mifflin and commending the visitor to the courtesies of 

2 " Hail, Lehigh, to whose woody shores 
Monockesy his treasures pours, 

Thro' fertile meadows bro't; 
For when he writes the groves and streams 
Most fill the poet's airy dreams 

And most inspire his thoughts. 
Else, Bethlehem, had I pictured thee 
(Surrounding culture raised to see) 

My muse's earliest care; 
Or told the customs and the rites 
Each brother boasts (as she indites) 

Or each religion 's fair. 
From German fields the people came 
O'er stormy seas, with pious aim, 

Nor deemed the risk too much. 
Irish in troops the same have done, 
By bondage short their welfare won, 

Scotch, English, French and Dutch." 



1/86 i8o6. 553 

Bishop Ettwein." He, of course, met with pohte attention and in 
the account of his travels'' gave, at some length, the most correct 
statements about the place and about Moravian affairs generally 
that is to be met with in such printed narratives. 

In his first reference to Bethlehem and the Moravian Brethren he 
says : "I have read in books of travels, so many different recitals 
respecting the government of their Society, their community of 
goods, their children even being taken away from the authority and 
superintendence of their parents, as belonging to the Society at 
large, and respecting several other points of their government, that 
I was desirous to judge, myself, of the truth of these assertions, and 
I have found at Bethlehem fresh reason not to credit, without proof, 
the recitals of travelers. This indisputable truth is, however, rather 
delicate to be averred by one who is writing travels." He reveals 
the correct insight he had gotten into the system of things by even 
explaining that the General Econom}' which existed prior to 1762, was 
an emergency arrangement, though "contrary to the rules and usages 
of their Society (i. e. elsewhere), from the necessity of circumstances 
which would have rendered the general progress of their Society 
more slow, and the situation of the individual families more incon- 
venient, if their labors. and productions had been divided." It is 
agreeable, in contrast to the nonsense published by some, to read 
among his statements, this, in reference to the arrangements with 
the children in the time of the Economy : "The fathers and mothers 
being constantly employed in labour, could not, without inconven- 
ience to the Community, give their attention to the children. The 
Society therefore set apart some of the sisters to take care of the 
whole. The authority, however, and the superintendence of the 
parents was neither taken away nor diminished." His statements 
in regard to the alleged enforced surrender of private property about 

3 "Sir. 

Permit me, in the absence of the Governor, to introduce to your acquaintance Mr. Lian- 
court (formerly Duke de Liancourt) who is about to prosecute a tour through the interior of 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Any information which you can communicate to him, and 
attention that you may be pleased to shew, will confer a favour on the Governor, as well as 
on me. 

Phila., 15 June 1797. I have the honour to be, 

with great respect. Reverend Sir, 
The Right Rev'd Bishop Ettwein Your most obed. Hble serv, 

Bethlehem and Nazareth. A. J. Dallas." 

4 Voyage dans les Elais- Urn's, translated under the title of Travels in North America. 



554 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

which some had formerly written so much, are equally correct and 
lucid : "At that time, even (i. e. under the former General Economy) 
notwithstanding their community of goods, the Brethren that 
received any money from their families or friends, had the predis- 
posal of it. If any of them vested their property in the common 
stock, it was voluntary, and the effect of a zeal and disinterested 
action of which there were few examples. The Brethren possessed 
of any private property, had frequently their children with them ; they 
clothed them better and the care which they took of their infancy — a 
charge considered a relief to society — was a proof that at Bethlehem 
the children were not, as has been alleged, the property of the 
Community, and that it was no part of the constitution to make 
members renounce all private property." He then carefully states 
that the system of that time was aboHshed in 1762, and that, after 
that, Bethlehem was established "on the rules of the societies 
in Europe." His brief, clear statements about the regulations of the 
time at which he visited the place are almost without exception 
entirely correct. This eminent publicist, making a study of such 
matters, would, of course, get a clear insight into things more readily 
than untrained observers among mere tourists. Writing moreover 
with a sober purpose, his foremost desire was not to merely tell an 
entertaining story, while he had no disposition to distort things to 
the disadvantage of the Moravians, like some of the prejudiced 
ecclesiastics who had formerly written about the place. Fifty years 
after he wrote, changes even greater were made at Bethlehem than 
those of thirty-five years before that time, and yet, after fifty more 
years have passed since those greater changes, it is not uncommon 
to meet with statements in print about Bethlehem and the Moravians, 
as they are alleged to be at the present time, which would have 
been antiquated statements even at the time when de la Rochefou- 
cauld wrote, more than a century ago, and would have been corrected 
by his narrative of that time. His observation about caution in 
accepting narratives written is even yet not without value. 

Much of the intercourse that took place between the authorities 
at Bethlehem and public men during the period sketched in this 
chapter, had to do with the affairs and aims of an important organ- 
ization that had been formed, to which allusion has not yet been 
made. Although it existed for the prosecution of mission work, and 
its principal operations lay at a distance from Bethlehem, belonging 
rather to the general work of the Moravian Church than to the local 



1786 i8o6. 555 

concerns of the town, its official seat has ahvays been at Bethlehem 
and so much of its history is interwoven with the history of the 
town, that its founding can not properly be omitted from these 
pages. This was the "Society of the United Brethren for Propa- 
gating the Gospel Among the Heathen." When its formation was 
first discussed, October 15, 1766, it was at the instance of the General 
Directory of the Church in Europe which suggested a plan for placing 
the "Pennsylvania Heathen Society on the same footing as that in 
England." This recalls the fact that the Society for the Furtherance 
of the Gospel founded by Moravians in England in 1741, which had 
become decrepit, was at that time being revived under a new organ- 
ization, and the fact that the society of the same name founded in 
Pennsylvania, August 19, 1745, after the model of that in England, 
to which reference was made in a previous chapter, was now also 
in a decrepit state, had a mere nominal existence and was approach- 
ing its dissolution. The difficulties in the way of its re-organization 
on the proposed plan, seemed to be so great at that time that it 
was postponed. Meanwhile its nominal existence — which at last 
amounted to nothing more than its appearance as a factor in the 
finances, in the quality of a debtor to the so-called General Diaconate 
in the accounts of 1762-1771 — was terminated when, in connection 
with the financial re-organization of 1771, its debt of £459.13 was 
charged ofif and not carried into the new books then opened. A 
memorandum in reference to that debt states that it "must be consid- 
ered sunk, as the said Society is dissolved and the income as well 
as the Expenses are now managed by the Sustentation in Bethle- 
hem." The question of re-organizing the society came up again 
in 1768 and was the subject of further correspondence with the 
authorities in Europe. While the matter was being delayed, the 
disturbances of the Revolution broke in and, of course, nothing was 
then done. Therefore a considerable interval elapsed between the 
dissolution of the old organization and the formation of the new 
one. In 1786, while Bishop de Watteville was in Pennsylvania, the 
proposition of 1768, was again discussed with the result, as stated in 
a paper in the hand-writing of Bishop John Ettwein, preserved in 
the archives, that "a proposal and a rough draft as a plan for a 
Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the 
Heathen" was sent to the authorities in Europe and was by them 
"Kindly received, amended, approved and recommended for execu- 
tion, which was cheerfully done, and the Stated Rules of the Society 



556 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the United Brethre;n for Propagating tlie Gospel among the 
Heathen agreed on and subscribed in Bethlehem the 21st of Septem- 
ber, 1787, as printed."^ 

On May 5, 1787, the General Conference of Helpers at Bethlehem 
received the answer to their letter of December 25, 1786, proposing 
to the Unity's Elders' Conference that the new organization be now 
proceeded with and application be made to the Congress of the 
United States for a charter of incorporation. On August 3 and 
again on September 4, the articles of constitution worked over by 
the U. E. C. embodying their proposed amendments to the draft 
that had been sent them, were carefully considered seriatim. It is to 
be observed here that the common supposition that this constitution, 
which was adopted almost verbatim as then drafted, emanated in 
the first instance from the U. E. C. has been ascertained to be an 
error. The original draft was made by Bishop John Ettwein and, 
with the proposed alterations and amendments by the U. E. C, was 
eventually adopted. September 14, after securing the approval of 
the proposed constitution by the Elders' Conferences of Bethlehem, 
Nazareth, Lititz and Hope, and of the majority of the ministers of 
the city and country congregations, the General Board of Helpers 
resolved to call a meeting on September 21, of those persons at 
Bethlehem and Nazareth who under the constitution would be e.v- 
ofRcio members, to proceed with the organization. This meeting was 
held in the original chapel of Bethlehem in the old Community 
House, which had become the residence of local clergy exclu- 
sively and therefore, properly speaking, a Clergy House. After a 
formal opening and an address, the constitution was read and then 
signed by those present according to an order agreed upon. Then 
•followed the election of a President and three Assistant Directors ; 
the members of the General Conference of Helpers — subsquently 
again Provincial Helpers' Conference and then Provincial Elders' 
Conference — being cx-officio directors, together with the members 
of the similar Executive Board in North Carolina, until some years 
later, when a separate organization was formed there. The first 
President of the Society was Bishop Ettwein, president of the board 



5 For a full account of the original society of 1745- see Transactions of the Moravian 
Historical Society Vol. V. pp. 311-355- -4 Historical Sketch of the Society for Propagating 
the Gospel among the Heathen, 1787-1S87, compiled by the late Bishop Edmund de 
Schweinilz, and read at the centennial anniversary of the new society, was publislied in 
1887 by the Board of Directors. 



17S6 i8o6. 557 

at Bethlehem. The Administrator of the property in Pennsylvania 
of the Unity or Church General, John Christian A. deSchweinitz, 
was appointed the first treasurer and Jacob Van Vleck the first sec- 
retary; he with Bernhard Adam Grube and John Frederick Peter 
being the first three elected assistant directors. 

It was decided that August 21, the anniversary of the beginning 
of the Moravian missions to the Heathen, should be proposed, as the 
day for the annual general meeting of the Society. Bishop Ettwein 
was commissioned to draft a petition to Congress for an Act of incor- 
poration and to consult with Charles Thompson, Secretary of Con- 
gress, furnishing him a copy of the constitution. Thompson 
suggested that the more proper course would be to apply to the 
Assembly of Pennsylvania for incorporation, as the Society would 
be organized in that State. It is interesting to note, in this matter, 
the federalist conceptions of the Moravian authorities at that time, 
before the Constitution of the United States had been adopted, in 
thus turning at once to Congress as the body to be addressed. They 
were, for the most part, of this political persuasion which was in 
harmony with the genius of their own organization as then estab- 
lished under a strongly centralized federal government. In discussing 
the question of applying to Congress for incorporation at the 
meeting of September 21, 1787, it was debated whether they should 
wait until the adoption of the federal constitution — the Constitutional 
Convention had just finished its work and in the following December 
it was ratified by Pennsylvania — or proceed at once when there were 
yet many in Congress who were conversant with Moravian affairs 
and friendly disposed. On October 19, it was decided to have six to 
eight hundred copies of the constitution of the Society with an intro- 
duction by Ettwein printed in English and distributed for the infor- 
mation of the members of the Assembly and of different Congress- 
men and other public men. The proposition to ask the Assembly 
at the same time for a grant of land for the benefit of the Indian 
missions — no indemnification having ever been received for the 
improvements abandoned when the missions had to be transferred to 
Ohio — was deemed open to objection in connection with the petition 
for incorporation, unless well-informed and influential members of 
the Assembly should suggest the expediency of doing so. The first 
general meeting of the Society took place, November i, 1787, and 
was attended by fifty-three members from Bethlehem and other 
places. The act of incorporation was passed by the Assembly of 



558 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pennsylvania, February 27, 1788. Similar incorporation was later 
secured in New Jersey and New York, and then also in the new 
State of Ohio, where twelve thousand acres of land in the Tuscarawas 
Valley had been set apart by the United States Government for the 
Christian Indians in 1785, as an indemnification for the ruin of the 
missions. In 1796 the grant was confirmed and made over to the 
Society in trust. In 1797 the survey took place and in 1798 the 
patent was finally signed by the President of the United States. 
Further proceedings of the Society need not be here pursued. After 
an unbroken existence of one hundred and fourteen years on the new 
foundation laid in 1787, it held its one hundred and twenty-eighth 
general meeting in 1901, in a vigorous and flourishing condition, its 
financial report showing $16,160.81 disbursed during the preceding 
fiscal year." 

Numerous interesting communications between the officers of the 
Society for Propagating the Gospel and the highest officials of the 
Government during the last decade of the eighteenth and the first 
of the nineteenth century are on record, and some of the letters that 
passed in these communications are preserved in the archives at 
Bethlehem. Its existence also gave occasion to renewed communi- 
cation between Bethlehem and General Washington. On March 28, 
1788, Bishop Ettwein wrote a letter to him, then at his home at 
Mount Vernon, and with it sent a copy of the constitution and rules 
of the Society, together with a treatise he had prepared on Indian 
traditions, languages and customs. Washington wrote a reply under 
date of May 2, in which he courteously acknowledged the receipt 
of these documents and spoke in commendatory terms of the Society 
and its object.' 

6 Founded in ,1745, existing until 1771, tlien, after the Revolutionary break, re-organized 
in 1787, this Society is by far the oldest existing missionary organization in America ; a claim 
continually made for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, organized, 
June 29, 1810. 

7 This letter of May 2, 1788, reads as follows : 
" Dear Sir, 

I have received your obliging letter of the 28th of March, inclosing a copy of 
some remarks on the customs, languages &c of the Indians, and a printed pamphlet con- 
taining the stated rules of a Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen ; for 
which tokens of polite attention and kind remembrance I must beg you to accept my best 
thanks. 

So far as I am able of judging, the principles upon which the Society is founded, and the 
rules laid down for its government, appear to be well calculated to promote so laudable and 
arduous an undertaking ; and you will permit me to add that if an event so long and so 



1786 i8o6. 559 

Again on July 10, 1789, at a meeting of the Directors of the 
Society, a congratulatory address was framed to be sent to him in 
view of liis inauguration as President of the United States. It was 
committed to the Rev. James Birkby, the Moravian pastor in New 
York City, to present in person. This was done and a very cordial 
answer was returned by Washington, which was received August 20, 
1789, to the board at Bethlehem.^ The sentiments expressed by 

ardently desired as that of converting the Indians to Christianity and consequently to civili- 
zation can be etifected, the Society at Bethlehem bids fair to bear a very considerable part in it. 
With sentiment of esteem, 

I am your most obedient humble servant, 

Geo. Washington." 
8 The address of the Directors read as follows: 

"To HIS Excellency George Washington, President of the United States of 
America. 

The Address of the Directors of the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the 
Gospel among the Heathen. 

Sir, 

The Directors for the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among 
the Heathen do in the Name of this Society and in the name of all the Brethren's Congre- 
gations in these United States most cordially congratulate you on your being appointed 
President of the United States of America. 

Filled with gratitude towards God and our Saviour, unto whose goodness and kind inter- 
position we ascribe this great and joyous event, we rely on His mercy and on the influence 
of His good Spirit when we expect that your administration will prove salutary and a bless- 
ing to that Nation whose unanimous voice has called you to preside over it. 

We embrace this opportunity to present you a small treatise which contains 'An Account 
of the Manner in which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren 
preach the Gospel and carry on their missions among the Heathen.' 

Permit us at the same time to recommend in a particular manner the Brethren's Mission 
among the Indians in the territory of the United States which is at present at Petquotting on 
Lake Erie and in a very dangerous situation, to your kind notice and protection, and to lay 
before you the ardent wish and anxious desire we have of seeing the light of the glorious 
Gospel spread more and more over this country and great multitudes of poor benighted 
heathen brought by it to the saving knowledge of Christ our Saviour Who gave Himself a 
ransom for all and who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the 
truth. 

We fervently pray the Lord to strengthen your health, to support you daily by his Divine 
assistance, and to be Himself your Shield and great Reward. 

Signed in behalf of the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among 
the Heathen and in behalf of all the Brethren's Congregations in the United States. 

John Andrew Huebner, Charles Gotthold Reichel, 

Hans Christian v. Schweinitz, Paul Muenster, 
Frederick Peter, David Zeisberger." 

Bethlehem, July 10, 1789. (Bishop Ettwein was in Europe.) 

The answer of Washington, long thought to have disappeared and known, as to its con- 
tents, only through copies, was unexpectedly found by the writer of these pages in 1892, in 










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N^^^ i 



1 



^ I lit '^-.:^ t,^ , K,j^ - >^ ^ 




HTo^ui^iriHti'^lii:? 




n I 111 In. 



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1/86 iSo6. 561 

Washington in these two letters were those which influenced his 
recommendations and polic}- in dealing with the Indian problem of 
that time, as clearly appears upon an examination of extant records 
relating to this subject during the administration of the first Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Early in 1791 and again in 1792, Bethlehem was once more brought 
into interesting connection with representative Indians engaged in 
negotiations with the Government. The first week in January, 1791, 
Bishop Ettwein was in Philadelphia — the seat of the Federal Gov- 
ernment being then in that city — to see President Washington and 
members of Congress in regard to the land grant. Three Seneca 
chiefs,Cornplanter, Half-town and Big-tree, were in the city as agents 
of their people, and by special request he met them on January 
6 — Epiphany, the Moravian missionary day'' — at the house of Gover- 
nor Mifflin and addressed them "as a representative of the Moravian 
Brethren, in whom they had confidence." His account of this inter- 
view awakened much interest at Bethlehem and recalled the scenes 
of earlier days to the minds of many. Yet more vivid was the 
reminder of those times that came in ilarch, 1792. On the 9th 
of that month fifty-one chiefs and other representative men of the 

a bundle of receipts in the archives, enclosed in the original envelope, with the endorse- 
ment of Clement Biddle on the cover, and under that a further endorsement in the hand- 
writing of Treasurer de Schweinitz ; " Rec'd at Bethlehem, August 20, 1789." The letter, 
autograph throughout, very neatly written and beautifully preserved, reads as follows : 

" To the Directors of the Society of the United Brethren fcr Propagating the Gospel 
among the Heathen. 

Gentlemen : 

I receive with satisfaction the congratulations of your Society, and of the Breth- 
ren's congregations in the United States of America For you may be persuaded that the 
approbation and good wishes of such a peaceable and virtuous community cannot be in- 
different to. me. You will also be pleased to receive my thanks for the Treatise which you 
present, and to be assured of my patronage in your laudable undertakings. 

In proportion as the General Government of the United States shall acquire strength 
through duration, it is probable they may have it in their power to extend a salutary influ- 
ence to the Aborigines in the extremities of their Territorry. In the meantime it will be a 
desirable thing for the protection of the Union to co-operate as far as the circumstances may 
conveniently admit, with the disinterested endeavours of your Society to civilize and 
Christianize the savages of the wilderness. 

Under these impressions, I pray Almighty God to have you always in His holy keeping. 

G. Washington." 

9 See on Christmas, 1741, and note 14, Chapter IV. The last Indian baptism at Bethlehem, 
before the Revolution, took place January 6, 1763. 

37 



562 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Six Nations arrived at Bethlehem en route for Philadelphia, on invita- 
tion of Washington, as an embassy from their people. They were 
accompanied by the well-known missionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirk- 
land, then engaged in his noble experiment at Oneida. The names 
of eight of the chiefs are given. The principal one was the famous 
RSed Jacket. Cornplanter and Big-tree were again of the number. 
Others were Farmer's Brother, Little Billy, Captain Shanks and La 
Fayette's young Oneida, Pierre Jaquette, who died at Philadelphia. 
They tarried at Bethlehem until the 12th, when they proceeded by 
canoe down the Lehigh and the Delaware to the capital city. With 
solemn formality they were gathered in the village church — the pres- 
ent Old Chapel — while at Bethlehem, and were addressed by Bishop 
Ettwein, who reminded them of the former relations of Moravian 
missionaries to the Six Nations, and especially the several covenants 
of friendship made, beginning with that by Count Zinzendorf in 1742. 
The pupils of the boarding-school were present and one of them read 
an address to the Indian visitors. Red Jacket responded in dignified 
language to the Bishop and the old man, Good Peter, to the young 
ladies. This was the last visit to Bethlehem by Lidians in any 
considerable number. 

Times and circumstances had changed, and their presence did not 
awaken fear and wrath among people of the neighborhood, as on so 
many former occasions. The Indian question and others which had 
once occasioned so much friction between some elements of the 
surrounding population and the Bethlehem people were now dead 
issues, and relations were becoming normal. Since the close of the 
Revolutionary War, several of the Bethlehem clergy, particularly 
Jacob Friis until his death in 1793, Jacob Van Vleck and John 
Frederick Frueaufl, had been doing much preaching in different 
neighborhoods where people desired gospel ministrations, and where, 
for some years, service in this respect in their several denominations 
was very inadequate through scarcity of preachers. Several such 
regular preaching-places were established in the Saucon Valley 
particulai-ly. These ministrations cultivated increasingly friendly 
relations and, as a general thing, were not objected to, but rather 
welcomed by the ministers of other denominations, who were labor- 
ing to serve extensive fields as well as they could ; for it was under- 
stood that it was not the intention of the Bethlehem ministers to 
attempt to establish denominational work, but merely to be of assist- 
ance in serving the needs of the people in the absence of a sufficient 



1786 i8o6. 563 

number of pastors. The era of church building in the surrounding 
country opened in the last decade of the century, and there are occa- 
sional references in the records, interesting, but in their meager and 
indefinite brevity irritating, to the participation of Bethlehem minis- 
ters and musicians in the consecration of churches at various points. 
These were usually union churches erected by the Lutheran and 
Reformed people jointly. Thus on August 15, 1790, there is men- 
tion of such a church dedication in the Drylands. Again on March 
24, 1793, the dedication of the Fricdens Kirche in Saucon is men- 
tioned. The Rev. Augustus Klingsohr and a number of Bethlehem 
musicians participated ; Klingsohr delivering an address and offering 
the dedicatory prayer. The sermons were preached by the Lutheran 
pastor Jaeger and the Reformed pastor Hofmeyer. In the afternoon 
Pastor Pomp preached, and the diarist remarks that his wife was 
"a daughter of the sainted Brother Henry Antes. "^" In this instance 
some details of the occasion are mentioned, even the texts of the 
several discourses being recorded. 

On September 4, 1796, it is stated that the musicians of Bethlehem 
and many others, also from Nazareth and Emmaus, were present at 
the dedication of the Lutheran church in AUentown, and again, 
October 15, 1797, Klingsohr and the musicians went, on invitation 
of the church officers, to help dedicate a new house of worship in 
Whitehall Township. Occasional funeral services by Bethlehem 
ministers at different places about the country are mentioned. Thus 
in March, 1796, two by Frueauff are referred to; on the 7th "in 
Zion's Church, four miles away in the Dry Lands," and on the 26th 
in the "Stone Church" in Saucon, "the first in that neighborhood." 

Nothing specially marred the peace of Bethlehem and its sur- 
roundings but politics, and it often became necessary for the fathers 
of the village to admonish those who became affected by the excite- 
ment of election times, or yielded to the temptation to discuss issues 
with people of the country and neighboring towns, that they were 
bound by their signature to the Brotherly Agreement. The fact 
that anything whatever, no matter how preposterous or malicious, 
will be used as campaign material by some kinds of men, if it serves 
a purpose in politics, had its demonstration in those days as well as 

'oThe Rev. Nicholas Pomp was the second husband of Elizabeth Antes whose first hus- 
band was George PhiUp Dotterer. Her son, the Rev. Thomas Pomp, Reformed pastor at 
Easton for fifty years, was the father-in-law of the Rev. Joseph Berg, D.D. — McMinn, Li/e- 
ami Times of Hejiry Antes. 



564 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in modern times. Thus during a very hotly contested and rancorous 
campaign in the autumn of 1789, when Jacob Eyerie, of Nazareth, 
was candidate for the Assembly, the case of a certain unsophisticated 
Moravian, of Schoeneck, who was imposed upon by a fellow who 
palmed himself off as an English prince financially stranded, was 
made use of by some enterprising campaign workers of the opposi- 
tion, to show the rustic voters of Northampton County that the 
sympathies of the Moravians were yet with England, and that they 
were dangerous people. This nonsense really created sufficient 
hubbub that the church authorities considered the expediency of 
doing something to counteract the impression and to set forth that 
it was nothing more than an evidence of "Dummheit" on the part of 
the victim of the adventurer. Subsequently, quiet Bethlehem was 
made attentive more forcibly to the contention and uproar created in 
some parts by the experiments in the exercise of federal authority, 
especially in the matter of taxation. Thus in the latter part of Sep- 
tember, 1794, the people were reminded of Revolutionary times by 
the marching of considerable bodies of militia through the place, on 
their way to the western part of the State, in obedience to the 
summons of the President, to forcibly put down the revolt against 
the excise law of the United States, commonly known as the 
■'Whiskey Rebellion," and again early in December, when a number 
passed through on their return after the disturbance had been 
quelled. Far more exciting was the experience made a few years 
later, at the time of the insurrection started in 1798, against the 
"house tax," and led, in Northampton and Bucks Counties, by the 
redoubtable John Fries, and sometimes given the name the "Fries 
Rebellion." The actual violence committed during that insurrection 
was far less than has attended mailer a strike in modern times, but 
the nature of the issue at that early stage of the Fed- 
eral Government, gave it more significance and made it 
memorable. The experience of Bethlehem in connection with 
that affair came on March 7, 1799, when an armed mob, headed 
by their hero and doughty chieftain, invaded the place at high noon, 
for the purpose of rescuing seventeen of their fellow insurgents, who 
had been actively engaged in preventing assessors from counting 
window-panes in people's houses in the interest of the obno.xious 
"direct tax," and whom a marshal had the hardihood to arrest. 
The marshal had his prisoners under guard in the basement of the 
Sun Inn, intending to proceed with them in triumph and to turn 




BETHLEHEM 
1793 
1795 



1786 i8o6. 565 

them over to the authorities. Perhaps out of this incident grew the 
modern tales, sometimes heard and innocently believed by some 
lovers of grim romance, about old-time dungeons under the Sun 
Inn, with iron doors creaking on their rusty hinges ; with gyves and 
manacles ; with subterranean passages leading mysteriously to other 
parts of the town, yea even down to the river, and other adjuncts of 
the absurd fiction. After much flourish and bravado, accompanied 
by some threatening remarks about the Moravian settlements, 
because one of the county officers of the time, helping to execute 
state and federal laws, was a Moravian, Fries and his gang accom- 
plished their object and left victorious with the rescued prisoners. 
The subsequent trial of the conspirators for high treason, their 
conviction, sentence and eventual pardon by the President of the 
United States need not be further mentioned here. It was again one 
of the singular vicissitudes of those days that so soon after the Revol- 
ution, during which the Moravians were so much decried by many in 
the neighborhood as enemies of the country and traitors, they were 
now denounced by the same turbulent populace for their loyalty, 
when the Government called upon these malcontents to also take 
their turn in paying taxes which they objected to. On March 17, 1799, 
a meeting of all the men of Bethlehem was called, at which a pastoral 
letter of the General Conference of Helpers was read, admonishing 
them as to their walk and conversation in such disturbed circum- 
stances and warning them against entanglement in political 
controversy and against aspiring to public office. The letter, it is 
recorded, made a good impression and had a salutary effect, together 
with the posting at the tavern of the proclamation by the President 
of the United States warning all who resisted the execution of the 
federal laws and committed violence. April 25, the day of fasting 
and prayer appointed by President Adams, was solemnly observed 
at Bethlehem by several services and sermons both in English and 
German. The President's proclamation was read and its various 
points were enlarged on in one of the sermons. The review of the 
year, on December 31, notes in connection with reference to the 
condition of public affairs and to local and neighborhood experiences, 
that there was more disposition to utter a humble Jesti Miserere than 
to join in high praises. 

An occasion for sadness, aside from these public disorders but 
associated with them in the minds of the people at Bethlehem, as well 
as elsewhere, was the national bereavement that had spread sorrow 



566 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

through the country just before the close of the year 1799. On 
December 22, the diarist of Bethlehem notes : "We received through 
the newspapers the affecting announcement of the death of General 
Washington on the 14th inst." The review at the close of the year 
has this : "We, with all the people of the United States, were very 
deeply moved by the recent news of the death of George Wash- 
ington, that man who has done so much for the good of the country 
and was so universally loved and honored." On January 7, 1800, 
the proclamation of President Adams, referring to demonstrations 
of mourning, was considered by the General Conference of Helpers, 
as the question had been raised whether Moravians should, like 
others, show this outward token of respect for the memory of the 
honored dead ; for it was not customary among them in those days to 
wear mourning attire or emblems among themselves because it was 
not held to be consistent with the idea inculcated that the departure 
of believers was going home to Christ and therefore the supreme 
bliss. It was observed that the words of the proclamation in this 
matter were merely a recommendation, leaving it optional, but that 
no objection should be offered if any desired to wear a badge of 
mourning on the left arm for thirty days, as proposed ; that it might 
indeed be proper for those who filled public positions to do so, and 
for the clergy to set the example, as a mark of respect for high 
authorities and for those whom the Nation honored. On February 
22, 1800, solemn memorial services were held, agreeably to the 
proclamation of the President. There was elaborate music suitable 
to the occasion and a discourse was delivered by Jacob Van Vleck, 
in which the character and public services of Washington were set 
forth as an example of how God raises up great men for great tasks, 
and as a pattern for patriots, statesmen and citizens. Thus the people 
of the place joined in this solemn commencement made by the 
Nation, at the instance of Presidential proclamation, in the obser- 
vance of Washington's birthday. 

At the beginning of 1800, Bethlehem entered upon three years of 
uneventful quiet. Some of its industries flourished, otliers languished 
and a few disappeared entirely. The new order of things at large 
and the course which the general development of business was taking 
were not auspicious for the prosperity of the various trades of the 
place, carried on in the old manner. Especiall}' was this the case 
with those which the authorities were trying to render profitable 
for the diacony of the Brethren's House. That establishment was 



1 786 iSo6. 567 

retrograding. Loyalty and zeal for its maintenance were so much 
on the decrease among the remaining inmates that their finances 
were becoming a steady drain upon the resources of the General 
Board of Wardens in Europe, who, under the existing system of 
mutual support among the diaconies of the Unity — a system which 
the authorities did not yet wish to abandon — were contributing 
considerable sums from year to year out of the surplus of the more 
profitable of them in Europe to cover the deficits of those which 
were running behind. There was a steady decrease in the number 
of single men in Bethlehem, from considerably more than a hundred 
at the close of the Revolution to only thirty-eight above twenty-one 
years of age, together with twenty-two boys and young men between 
the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, on December 31, 1806, when 
the entire population of Bethlehem, including seventy-nine boarders 
among the pupils of the girls' school, amounted to only 593. At the 
end of 1798, the total had been 601, including fifty-one boarders in 
the school; therefore a decrease in the actual population of the 
village, of thirty-six from 1798 to 1806. Fortunately for the peace 
of mind of those who were in control, this, in itself, caused no 
uneasiness or dissatisfaction, for such were the system and aims of 
that time, that numerical growth was not sought and indeed was not 
necessarily an evidence of prosperity in those respects in which this 
was desired. As to the financial situation, it would have to become 
much worse before bankruptcy stared the Brethren's House in the 
face, so long as that arrangement of pooling accounts was main- 
tained. 

The special services of December 31, 1800, with which a completed 
century was closed, when a more extended and comprehensive 
retrospect than at the close of ordinary years was compiled, were 
marked by a more cheerful tone than prevailed at the close of the 
preceding year. In other respects, things had been gotten into 
smoother and more satisfactory working order in the village, and 
no special disturbance is recorded during the first six years of the 
new century embraced in this chapter. As to politics and connection 
with public business, the place again even dispensed with the pres- 
ence of a Justice of the Peace for a few years ; a conference of 
ministers in 1802, having gone so far as to declare that none should 
reside in any of the church-villages. This was receded from 
several years later ; even the Unity's Elders' Conference in Europe 
expressing the view that this exceeded what the General Synod had 



568 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

enacted on the subject and was hardly an expedient measure. This 
was one of the moves in which the hand of the Rev. John Gebhard 
Cunow appeared, and which met the decided dissatisfaction of many 
at Bethlehem. Apart from these features of the situation there was 
little stir on the surface of village life more conspicuous than that 
occasioned by the various official changes, as reviewed earl}^ in this 
chapter, up to 1806 — in order to present them' all in connection — the 
death of one after another leading man or notable woman," the 
most conspicuous being that of Bishop Ettwein on January 2, 1802, 
as already mentioned, and the occasional arrival of accessions to 
various branches of official service or lines of industry from 
Europe. ^- 



II Besides the deaths referred to in this chapter, a few of the many others from the close 
of tire last chapter to 1806, may be noted because of the special prominence of the individ- 
uals or particular interest attaching to them : 1785, Henry Van Vleck ; 17S6, Judith Bene- 
zet Otto, widow of Dr. John Frederick Otto who died at Nazareth; 1789, Timothy Hors- 
field, Jr., the apothecary, son-in-law of William Parsons; also the wife of Bishop Ettwein, 
while he was in Europe; 1790, Immanuel Nitschmann, secretary and musical director, 
Barbara Fenstermacher, who as the widow of Michael Leibert had been a zealous patroness 
of the second Moravian school in Germantown, and Jost Jansen, inn-keeper during the 
Revolution ; 1791, Herman Loesch the miller, Gottlieb Lange the saddler who did work for 
the American army, Marcus Kiefer the master smith associated with the tribulations of the 
first Indian war; 1792, Daniel Kliest the expert lock-smith, and, in Lancaster County, John 
Okely, long so prominent and useful, who in 178S severed connection and left after a strange 
course of procedure to the detriment of the community in pursuit of his own plans, with 
controversy, litigation and at last complete estrangement ; 1793, Christian Frederick Oerter 
the famous book-keeper, Abraham Boemper the silver- smith Anna Margaret Jungmann, 
m.n. Bechlel, of Indian mission fame ; 1795, Matthew Weiss, celebrated far and wide as a 
dyer, aged 87 years; 1797, John Christian Hasse, book-keeper in the Administrator's office 
and conspicuous during the Revolution, whose later years were saddened by his own faults 
and frailties ; 1798, the venerable widow and Deaconess Catherine Huber, the last of the 
Georgia colonists excepting the missionary Zeisberger. and referred to as the oldest woman 
(95 years) in Moravian official circles in America or Europe; I Sol, John George Stoll, saw- 
miller and inn-keeper at the Crown; 1S03, Ferdinand Philip Jacob Detmers, formerly 
warden, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz; 1805, John Schropp, the warden, James Cruickshank, 
steward, boarding-school and assistant apothecaiy, and Charles Cist, printer of Philadelphia 
and pioneer in anthracite coal trade, who died on a journey up the country. Many other 
interesting names might be mentioned on a broader basis of selection. More complete in- 
formation in reference to these and others whose decease has been referred to, may be found 
in the official register of deaths preserved in the Moravian "churcli books," 

'2 The lists of the arrivals during these years, containing also the names of many destined 
for other places in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, are not always entered accurately and 
completely in the diaries, and could only be given in full, as in earlier years, by laborious 
examination of catalogues and biographies. With few exceptions those who located at 



1786 i8o6. 569 

In 1803, after years of discussion and planning, active operations 
were commenced at a more prominent building enterprise than 
any that have been referred to in this chapter; one which, in view 
of the numerical and financial situation of Bethlehem at that time, 
was a surprising undertaking. This was the erection of a new church 
which was said, and doubtless correctly, to have been, at the time of 
its completion, the largest church in Pennsylvania ; and it is doubtful 
whether a more spacious house of worship was to be found else- 
where in the country. The idea of building such a large village 
church — "LandkircJic" — with a capacity sufficient for an entire town 
and its environs for many years to come, did not have the character- 
istic chapel or "prayer hall" — Betsaal — of the Moravian settlement 
compound as a model, like the church of that time, now the Old 
Chapel. The great churches of many European villages, where 
a whole neighborhood has one church and does not think 
of having more, were in mind. This began to be dis- 
cussed long before the Revolution. Even as early as Novem- 
ber, 1754, the statement in a report from Herrnhut that the 
attendance on general communion occasions, when the people 
of the whole manor assembled, was too large for the capacity of the 

Bethlehem will be found mentioned in the diaries of the Congregation and the Brethren's 
House. They usually arrived in companies, but there were no large colonies as in earlier 
years — never beyond 12 to 15 at one time. The more considerable companies were single 
men, as a rule. Very few single women came. To assist those who may wish to pursue 
research in connection with this subject, or trace individuals, the year and month of the 
arrival of these lit'.le companies of Moravian immigrants, as found noted from the close of 
the Revolution to the end of the century, with a few conspicuous names of ministers and 
laymen of the several parties who figured at Bethlehem or elsewhere in Pennsylvania, are 
herewith given, in addition to those already mentioned in this chapter, without attempting a 
complete enumeration. November. 17S;. John Meder, John Augustus Klingsohr, Samuel 
Gottlieb Kramsch, Dr. John Lewis (surgeon N. C, died at Bethlehem, 17SS), Elizabeth 
Lewis, John Frederick Moehring; November, 17S4, Charles Gotthold Reichel, George 
Godfrey Mueller; October, 17SS, John Frederick Frueauff with four single men; August, 
1791, John Molther, Gottfried Sebastian Oppelt, Ernst Gehbe, Benedict Benade, and other 
single men, and in October, Christian Godfrey Peter, John Christopher Eilerts, Benjamin 
Mortimer, Christian Thomas Pfohl, Nils Tillofsen, and the teachers Christina Oliver and 
Mary Wade; November, 1795, the largest company, including Christian Frederick Schaaf, 
Andrew Benade, the surgeon Rudolphi, Conrad Kreuzer, Christian Gottlob Paulus, David 
Moritz Michael, the musician ; July, 1796, with Cunow, John Caspar Freitag (the Doctor 
John Eberhard Freitag came in 1 790, as already stated, with Ettwein) , and John Christian 
Ebbecke; November, 1797, John Frederick Stadiger with three single men; October 1799 
five single men, escorted by Godfrey Haga; November, iSoo, Joseph Zaeslein, Ernst Lewis 
Hazelius, John Henry Schultz, Frederick Bourquin. 



570 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

old Berthelsdorf church, called forth the remark in a conference at 
Bethlehem, that in process of time a church large enough to seat 
fifteen hundred persons would have to be built for the gathering 
of people from the outlying places and of the Indian converts who 
might be living in the vicinity, on special occasions. All of the men 
who participated in that conference had been gathered to their fathers 
and all Indians had long disappeared from the neighborhood, before 
this ambitious project was really consummated, fifty years later. 
When Bishop Nathanael Seidel went to the General Synod in Europe 
in 1769, he laid before that body the desirability of building such a 
church at Bethlehem. It was discussed and generally approved, but 
the scheme was postponed in favor of the enlargement of the Sisters' 
House. Then, while the matter was yet resting, the Revolution came 
on and further steps could not be thought of. When Christian 
Heckewelder first broached the idea, in 1785, of building a 
new store "on the vacant lot opening on the square" — the 
place at which it was eventually built, the Eagle Hotel site — it is 
recorded that the project to build a new church was re-opened and 
the opinion prevailed that this should take precedence. Further 
deliberations followed at intervals until Bishop Ettwein went to 
Europe in 1789, to attend the General Synod. He was authorized 
to agitate the subject anew. He took with him a map of Bethlehem, 
drafts of several eligible sites and a plan of the proposed church. 
His fond hope was that the enterprise might be proceeded with 
during the years 1790 and 1791, and might progress far enough to at 
least have the corner-stone laid at the celebration of Bethlehem's 
jubilee, June 25, 1792. The drafts and plans were discussed with 
much interest at the Synod, the committee on American aflfairs 
reported in favor of the undertaking, plans for raising the necessary 
money were considered, and the official sanction which was necessary 
under the system of that time was formally given by the Unity's 
Elders' Conference. Decided differences of opinion in regard to the 
building site began to develop after Bishop Ettwein's return. His 
favorite spot was the so-called timber yard, the locality between the 
present main building of the Parochial School and Cedar Street, now 
occupied by the remodeled boys' school house and the janitor's 
house. His plan was to open a new street from that spot down to 
the present Main Street and the large open square — Plate — of that 
time, which, with Cedar Street northward, and the walks through 
the cemetery eastward, would, as he argued, provide approaches to 



1-86 i8o6. : S7I 

the church from those directions in which the town would naturally 
extend, while access from the various choir houses southward would 
be very convenient. Another site in view was the garden south of 
the Community or Clergy House, where at present the parsonage 
west of the Widows' House stands. This place was favored by the 
fathers of the Unity's Elders' Conference, for it was thought that 
there it would round out a symmetrical group, fronted and flanked 
right and left by the several other institutional buildings, and pre- 
sent an imposing and picturesque appearance from the southern 
approach to the town across the river. The third site proposed was 
the large space west of the old Communitj^ House, then yet occupied 
by the two log houses and the water-tower, all of which were 
thought to have outlasted their usefulness, to be in a state of decay, 
and unsightly in appearance. It was proposed to demolish these 
and build the new church there, fronting the square or Platz ; front- 
ing also what those who were having the bridge in mind, considered 
would then become the Main Street of the town ; the thoroughfare 
between the bridge and the hotel, store and mills, more traveled 
than before, when traffic grew with the prospective development of 
facilities. That this site was ultimately chosen was to some extent 
a compromise on the part of those who advocated the other two, 
between which there was the most decided contention ; and the 
favorite plan of some to have that space eventually thrown into the 
Platz and remain a park was waived. The argument against the 
timber-yard site was mainly that it would not display the church 
sufficiently, and would become pent up. 

Ettwein argued against the garden site most decidedly and to 
some extent also against that which was finally selected, chiefly on 
account of misgivings as to the security of the foundation, in view 
of the precarious nature of the limestone formation along that entire 
slope, to which he had given careful attention. He pointed out 
evidences of cavernous places in the rock, of sliding and settling 
layers and a treacherous condition generally, increasing towards the 
descent southward. This had led the master masons to strengthen 
the walls of the connecting section of the Sisters' House and those 
of the chapel, built in 1751, with buttresses. It had caused much diffi- 
culty with the foundation of the Widows' House and produced a 
crack in the walls of the Brethren's House. Although, as he records, 
his opinion on this point was ridiculed by some and not much heeded 
by any, the unexpected labor and expense required to secure a satis- 



572 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

factory foundation when finally the church building was commenced, 
justified his views, and as for the garden site across the way to the 
south of the clergy house, which he most strongly opposed, some 
who are very familiar with the premises in modern times have 
observed singular evidences of the precarious condition of things 
beneath the surface, of which he was so firmly persuaded. The matter 
dragged until, in February, 1792, it seemed, after further discussion 
in the several boards, as if an agreement would at last be reached 
to let the question of the site be discussed by the men of the village 
in common council. Then the bridge building project was suddenly 
thrust forward and another postponement of the church building 
ensued. 

In a letter to the Unity's Elders' Conference, in March, 1792, 
Bishop Ettwein, referring to the question that had been raised anew 
as to whether a large church was really needed, expressed the belief 
that if there could always be a strong preacher at Bethlehem, as well 
as at Lititz, many people from the surrounding neighborhoods would 
be attracted to the churches of these places. Amid the religious 
conditions and doctrinal tendencies of those times, he attached great 
importance to the idea of making the Moravian churches centers at 
which to gather as many people as possible to hear sound evangelical 
preaching. He refers also to the inconvenient, round-about 
entrances to the Old Chapel, of which he was often ashamed when 
the numerous visitors at Bethlehem during the summer, who wished 
to attend services, had to be conducted into the place. ^^ Meanwhile 
the new building for the boarding-school, the bridge, the extension 
of the Widows' House, the new store, a new market house and other 
minor improvements were completed and the church building enter- 

13 The present north facade and entrance to the Old Chapel are modern. At that time, it 
was entered through the eastern doorway at the front of the Clergy House and by doors at 
the east side, one from the first floor of the bell-turret house, another opening from the lawn 
in front of it into the basement under the chapel, from which an inside stairway ascended. 
There was also a door, made use of commonly by aged and invalid women, opening from 
the upper floor of the bell-turret house into a small gallery at the north end. As the interior 
of the buildings was then arranged, access to the chapel through that doorway could be had 
from the remotest parts of the Sisters' House without going out of doors. The congrega- 
tion was for the most part seated facing westward. The simple table which served all the 
purposes of the officiating minister— there was no regular pulpit — was placed centrally at the 
west side, where he stood or sat facing the congregation eastward, with the oflicial men and 
women seated on special benches against the west wall, to his right and left respectively, 
al.so facing the congregation. Various oil paintings representing Scripture scenes, especially 
from the life of Christ, some of which are yet preserved, were hung about the walls. 



1786 i8o6. 573 

prise was indefinitely postponed. Finally a new start was made in 
1802, when the development of the provisions for water distribution, 
the construction of a new octagonal stone reservoir, from which the 
first flow began on September i of that year, and the consequent 
abandonment of the old wooden water-tower, opened the subject of 
building a church once more. The long delay had worn out the 
energy of controversy about the location of the edifice. The timber- 
yard and garden sites were given up by their respective advocates 
and gradual agreement to settle upon the water-tower site had been 
reached. Bishop Ettwein did not live long enough to see the actual 
beginning of operations, for on the second day of that year he 
entered into rest. The arrival of Bishop Loskiel in July, awakened 
new activity. In accordance with the common disposition of people, 
what he said found more hearing and what he did was more accept- 
able, because he was a new man, than anything that emanated from 
one who had been with them longer, even if he said or did the same 
things. 

The first flow of water from the new reservoir seemed to be 
emblematic of the new spirit of progressive action, for on that very 
day, September i, 1802, a general council was held to take those 
steps forward that depended now upon the action of such a meeting. 
Careful preparatory work had been done. Like the interesting asso- 
ciation between hotel and store, to which reference has been made, 
the process of things which was now culminating reveals a similar 
connection between water-works and church, giving room for fancy 
to play on the significance of "the well of Bethlehem," that wonder- 
ful spring, as an emblem of the spiritual water of life dispensed; the 
purpose for which the church was to stand. A committee had been 
wrestling with the water problem. It consisted of John Gebhard 
Cunow, the administrator ; John Schropp, the warden ; William 
Boehler, Jr., Joseph Horsfield, John Christian Reich, and Anton 
Schmidt. They canvassed the subject of a new water-tower or 
reservoir and a new church together, and the undertaking of the 
latter enterprise was strongly favored. Cunow and some others 
conceived the idea of combining them by planning the church with 
a massive tower at the west end, to be utilized for water distribution 
and belfry jointly, but this idea was evidently too startlingly unique 
to find acceptance. The unanimous sentiment of that meeting of 
September i, settled the question of proceeding. The very important 
matter of raising money was at the same time discussed. This point 



574 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and others involved were given consideration by a conference held 
by thirty-six ministers in the chapel of the Sisters' House, in Octo- 
ber. It was decided to solicit direct subscriptions, first from the 
Bethlehem people, then from the people of Nazareth, Lititz and the 
other Moravian settlements and congregations in America, then also 
from brethren and friends in Europe. The larger part of the cost 
was to be covered by instituting a tontine plan like that which had 
been adopted at Zeist, in Holland. Considerable amounts were, in 
course of time, made available under' this plan, which, although 
opposed by Cunow and some others, was adopted on a limited scale. 
Some of the annuities, however, ran on very long before the sums 
thus advanced ceased to draw interest, for certain of the beneficiaries 
were very tenacious of life. It is interesting to note how very 
modern they were in 1802, in under-estimating the probable cost of a 
church. It was expected that it could be built for about $11,000. 
It eventually cost more than five times that amount, including the 
organ. 

The Building Committee consisted of John Gebhard Cunow, the 
administrator; John Schropp, the warden; John David Bishop, 
William Boehler, Jr., Matthew Eggert, George Huber, and Samuel 
Steup, with the Rev. Andrew Benade, principal of the boarding- 
school and regular preacher, and at that time the most energetic 
advocate of the enterprise among the clergy. Preliminary steps to 
clear the building site and commence excavations were taken directly 
after the council of September i, 1802. Before the middle of Sep- 
tember the families who occupied the old log houses had been pro- 
vided quarters elsewhere. The water-tower house was demolished 
at the end of the month. James Cruickshank, the last occupant 
who tarried in the other one, next to the Clergy House, moved out, 
the middle of October, and before the end of that month the second 
of these old structures had also disappeared. Further than this, 
little seems to have been done at the spot during the winter. On 
November 19, Warden Schropp contracted for the quarrying of the 
stone at the "Stcin-Rutsch," i. e. rock-slide — the German words were 
later anglicized, with their meaning lost, into "stone ridge" — on the 
mountain side across the river from the large island. During that 
uncommonly cold winter, the most of the stone was conveyed across 
the river on the ice. Christian Nagel, George Savitz, John Hillman 
and Jacob Schneider were the quarrymen. John Cunius, of Reading, 
was the architect and superintendent of construction. His plans and 



1/86 i8o6. 575 

specifications were accepted, January, 1803. Contracts were made 
with Francis Weiss, of Lehighton, and William Nyce, up the Dela- 
ware, in the Minnisinks, for pine and oak timber; with BalzerStaehle, 
to furnish the choice white oak for the frame-work of the large 
belfry, and with Daniel Wagner and John Green & Co., of Easton, 
for pine boards. Adam Lehn and Nicholas Woodring, of Easton, 
were employed as master masons. March 19, 1803, at a special 
meeting of men and boys, it was agreed that the excavation of the 
cellar should be undertaken by volunteers, gratuitously. The next 
day a large number of them set to work at this task and continued 
from day to day — the residents of the Sisters' House furnishing fore- 
noon and afternoon lunch as their contribution to the effort — until in 
two weeks it was accomplished. Then preparations were made for 
starting the great foundation walls, six feet thick, with the best stone 
blasted out of the mountain side and mortar so excellent, from the 
pit in which it had lain during the winter, that when it now 
becomes necessary to apply the chisel and hammer to it, little 
difference between the hardness of the stone and the joints is 
perceptible. April 13, the masons began their work. The entire 
force, including the "tenders," numbered about twenty, nearly all 
of them men from out of town. 

April 16, the corner-stone was laid at the north-east corner, not 
as a mere ornamental block set into the wall above the ground, but 
down at the bottom, a foundation stone, after the manner of former 
times. At ten o'clock the people assembled in the Old Chapel, where 
a preliminary service was conducted and a brief address was deHvered 
by Bishop Loskiel, who also read the document which was to be 
deposited in the stone. It contained the names of National, State and 
Church dignitaries, catalogues of the several divisions of the mem- 
bership and lists of the pupils in the boarding-school. Coins of the 
United States, which were then a new thing — the first copper having 
been coined in 1792 and the first silver and gold in 1794 and 1795 — 
were also deposited. After this, the lead box into which the articles 
were placed was sealed. Then all proceeded in decorous order to the 
building site, where they formed in a square, while the trombonists 
performed a chorale. A hymn was sung, accompanied by stringed 
instruments, and in the last verse by the trombones also. The Bishop, 
with other officials, gathered about the stone and when the conse- 
crating formula had been spoken by him while he grasped the stone, 
preparatory to lifting it, he, with the assistance of Cunow and 



5/6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Schropp, placed it in position. After this the leaden box was put 
into the cavity in the stone and during the singing of another hymn 
all of the clergy who participated performed the ceremony of striking 
the stone with the hammer. Thereupon followed prayer by the offici- 
ating Bishop, after which a closing hymn was sung and the assembly 
was dismissed with the benediction.^* 

At the close of the year the walls were laid up to the eaves, and 
the woodwork had progressed correspondingly. William Boehler, 
Jr., was master-carpenter and John Frederick Bourquin, a very pro- 
ficient cabinet-maker and joiner, did the finer work, such as the 
paneling around the galleries, the carving at the door-ways and the 
like, and built the pulpit. Stephen Eastwick and Levick Palmer, of 
Philadelphia, did the plastering and stucco-work and rough-cast the 
exterior of the edifice after its completion, excepting the block-work 
around the windows, which was not done until after 1830. The 
building committee unfortunately became involved in controversy 
and litigation with these Philadelphia mechanics. Before the end 
of 1804, the entire building had finally been enclosed. May 7, 1805, 
the vane was mounted on the belfry, in which was hung the bell 
received from London in April; that now hanging in the belfry of 
the West Bethlehem Chapel. Although much work remained to be 
done inside, the church then stood complete in its original external 
shape, which is familiar from extant pictures and which many have 
wished it yet had. The annexes at each end had a fiat roof, covered 
with sheet copper. A graceful turret stood in the center of each, 
while a balustrade ran around the three outside edges. Trouble was 
experienced with leaking, which damaged the interior, and in 1816 
this unique design was destroyed by running out the gable roof of 
the central body of the building to both ends. There have always 
been those who could not be convinced that this course, put through 
by the determination of several men, was the only way to overcome 
the trouble, for there are many flat roofs in the world that do not 

14 A copy of the document that was deposited in the stone is preserved in the archives. 
The aged widow Salome Gold, a daughter of David Weinland. master of the violoncello 
and successor, in 1790, of Frederick Beitel as farmer general at Bethlehem — she died in 
1 89 1 in the 95th year of her age — was among the school children who were present on that 
occasion. When more than ninety years old she retained a vivid recollection of the cere- 
mony and gave the writer a description of it, stating exactly where the children stood, where 
the trombonists were stationed, what hymns were sung, and how the different officials looked. 
Her most striking impression was of Cunow who wore " a long blue coat with a cape" and 
of whom the little girls " were very much afraid." 



1786 i8o6. 577 

leak. The finishing of the interior proceeded slowly and was not 
completed until May, 1806. The interior of the church has been 
altered almost as much as the exterior. When it was originally 
finished there was no alcove at the pulpit end. Centrally at that 
end stood the traditional table — Liturgus-Tisch — characteristic of the 
Moravian chapel or prayer-hall, on a large platform which extended 
to the doors on either side, and it was flanked right and left by the 
benches for the clergy and for the women in oiificial position, facing 
the congregation. The old-time table and the chair for the use of the 
officiating minister are preserved in the archive-room of the church 
— the large up-stairs room at the east end, which was originally 
designed and for many years used for minor services and meetings 
of various kinds. High above the table, against the flat wall, was 
the pulpit of the pattern dubbed "'swallow's nest." It was entered 
behind from the aforesaid large vip-stairs room. The original pulpit, 
which was removed in 1851, when one designed by Bishop William 
Henry Van Vleck and now doing duty in the Moravian Church in 
South Bethlehem, was built at the same time that the organ gallery 
was enlarged, is yet in existence, stowed away in the garret of 
the church. On a level with the high pulpit, in the corners, on either 
side of it, were small galleries which were made use of by some 
clergy and church dignitaries, usually aged or infirm persons; men 
using that on the north and women that on the south side, corre- 
sponding to the division of the sexes in the seating of the congre- 
gation which was adhered to for sixty years after the church was 
built. Traces of those corner galleries, which were removed in 
1867, when the most radical interior alterations were made and the 
present pulpit was built, may be seen on the walls. They were 
entered through doorways up-stairs, from the eastern annex. A 
stairway similar to that in the north-east corner of the church origin- 
ally ran up in the south-east corner. The walls show the marks of 
that staircase, as also of the doors at the head of the stairs, both on 
the north and south sides, which opened into the corner galleries. 
Before the edifice was finally completed, two men departed this 
life who stood in very important connection with the enterprise. 
One, on July 4, 1805. as already stated, was the eminently capable, 
energetic and faithful Warden, John Schropp. He was, therefore, 
not permitted to see the completion and dedication of the church, 
in the building of which he had borne so large a part of the official 
responsibility and burden. The other was the famous old Mora- 

3S 



578 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

vian organ-builder, David Tanneberger, of Lititz, referred to in a 
previous chapter, who in May, 1804, was suddenly stricken down 
while finishing the placing and tuning of an organ in York, Pa. He 
expected to build the great organ for the Bethlehem church as his 
crowning achievement. He had come to Bethlehem on horseback 
in July, 1803, when the contract was made. At his instance the 
walls of the church were run up four feet higher than the architect's 
plan called for in order to have what he deemed sufficient vertical 
space under the ceiling to construct special pipes which it was 
desired to have. 

On June 5, 1804, a meeting of the General Council of the village 
was called to secure approval of the plan of the Elders' Conference 
to negotiate with a reputable organ-builder of New York, of whom 
information had been gotten by Bishop Loskiel. This was John 
Geib, who had his son associated with him in the business. The 
result was that Cunow, himself a good organist and therefore the 
most competent official for the purpose, was commissioned to go to 
New York to see Geib. On July 16, Cunow rendered a report, and, 
all things being considered satisfactory, a contract was at once 
made with John Geib and Son, for an organ somewhat larger than 
Tanneberger was to have built. The organ was finished in March, 
1806, and tested on the 27th of April. It is now in use in the chapel 
of the Parochial School, to which place it was removed at the 
close of 1872, to make way for the present church-organ, built by 
Jardine and Sons, of New York. The entire original cost of the 
church, including the organ, was slightly more than $52,000. 

The consecration of the new edifice began on Sunday Exaudi, 
May 18, 1806, and the festivities extended to the evening of Whit- 
Monday, May 26, including a variety of services. Elaborate prepa- 
rations were made by the clergy, the musicians, the committee on 
entertainment and the officials of the town ; even some special police 
arrangements being deemed necessary in anticipation of an enor- 
mous mixed multitude. Such a multitude did gather. The num- 
ber of people in Bethlehem on that Sunday, May 18, was estimated 
at more than six thousand, which was a great throng for a village 
of barely more than five hundred inhabitants. At five o'clock in 
the morning the jubilant sound of trombones, trumpets and other 
wind instruments from the belfry of the church broke the stillness 
of the awakening village with a musical announcement of the great 
festival day. Already troops of people from the surrounding coun- 



1786 i8o6. 579 

try were making their way towards the place, everything was soon 
astir and before eight o'clock the street in front of the church was 
thronged. The first service of the day was a brief one in the Old 
Chapel at eight o'clock. It was intended to be a formal leave- 
taking of that second sanctuary of the village, which, although 
occupied only fifty-five years, was rich in venerable associations. 
Bishop Loskiel officiated. At the close, the assembled membership 
passed in two processions into the new church, which was sur- 
rounded by great crowds inspecting the exterior of the structure 
and awaiting their arrival. One procession, headed by the Bishop 
and clergy and the various church officers, consisted of the male 
portion of the congregation. Following the church officers came 
the school boys, then the older boys and single men, and finally all 
the men of the village. They entered at the north-east door. The 
other procession, which passed in at the south-east door, was headed 
by the wives of the clergy and other women in official position. 
They were followed by the school girls and their teachers, and back 
of them came all the women of the congregation. The moment the 
doors swung open and the ministers entered the silent and empty 
building, they were greeted by a burst of music from the organ and 
trombones like that which announces the midnight hour at the New 
Year Eve vigils, and the chorale was the same — "Nun danket alle 
Gott." While the congregation filed in and took seats, a large choir, 
with elaborate orchestral accompaniment, sang the second part of 
the hundredth Psalm: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, 
and into His courts with praise : be thankful unto Him and bless His 
Name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His 
truth endureth to all generations." When the sound of the chorus 
ceased, the congregation raised the solemn hymn: "Heiliger Herr 
und Gott" — chorale No. 519 in the Moravian collection — the first 
verse of which, in English translation, is incorporated in the church 
litany. Thereupon all fell on their knees and Bishop Loskiel dedi- 
cated the finished edifice to the worship of the Triune God with a 
prayer of thanksgiving, confession and supplication, imploring the 
Divine blessing upon the house, upon all the future assemblies of 
the people within its walls and especially upon the preaching of the 
gospel within it during the coming years. This was followed by a 
brief address, in which gratitude for the completion of the structure 
after so many years of waiting, and cordial recognition of the ser- 
vices of those who had directed the work, all who had labored at it 



5 So A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and all who had contributed to the building fund was expressed. 
Then this first service closed. Apart from the elaborate music, no 
outward pomp and circumstance attended the occasion. The ritual, 
as will be observed, was extremely simple, but it is recorded that all 
present were profoundly impressed. It had been the desire that this 
first service should be exclusively for members of the congregation 
and of other Moravian congregations who had come to Bethlehem, 
but the pressure about the doors was so great that this could not 
be strictly adhered to. The next service, at which the first sermon 
was preached in German by Bishop Loskiel, was understood to be 
open to all who could find entrance. Not a spot, even of standing 
room, remained unoccupied in any part of the building into which 
people could crowd. Its seating capacity, with the loose benches 
of that time placed for close sitting, was fifteen hundred. It was 
estimated that about a thousand more were present. At this service 
the pulpit was used the first time and a special prayer of dedication, in 
view of this, preceded the sermon, which was based on the words, 
"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men" — Rev. 21 -.t,. At the 
conclusion of this service, the metrical version of the Te Deum 
Laudamus which, both in German and in English translation, is yet 
used in the Moravian Church, was sung. The English sermon was 
preached at three o'clock in the afternoon by the Rev. Andrew 
Benade, Principal of the boarding-school and associate minister. The 
text was, I Kings, 9:13. At this service anthems with English text 
were sung by the choir. The crowd was not so great as in the morn- 
ing, for many from distant neighborhoods left at noon and the most 
of the country people who had assembled were German. At the 
evening service, when few excepting Moravian visitors were present 
with the congregation, the Rev. John Herbst, Head Pastor at Lititz, 
preached in German; his text being 2 Tim. 2:19. 

The second da}''s festivities took place on Tuesday, May 20. At 
half-past eight there was morning prayer — a choral service with a 
brief address by Bishop Loskiel. At ten o'clock the first adminis- 
tration of baptism in the new church took place. The candidate 
was a young woman named Sai-ah Rothrock. At three o'clock there 
was lOvefeast. The collection of hymns and anthems sung by the 
congregation and choir was arranged by Bishop Loskiel. In the 
evening the Holy Communion was celebrated. Wednesday, the 
2ist, the first funeral was held in the church by the associate min- 
ister, Benade. It was that of Anna Catherine Hanke. In the even- 




GEORGE HENRY LOSKIEL CHARLES GOTTHOLD REICHEL 

JACOB VAN VLECK 
ANDREW BENADE JOHN DAVID BISHOP 



1786 i8o6. 581 

ing the first of the purely musical services, then so popular, called 
simply Singstunden, was held, with full choir and orchestra. Thurs- 
day evening was devoted to a special prayer-meeting by the mem- 
bers who participated in the hourly prayer-turns which were y'et 
observed, as instituted at Herrnhut in 1727, but in a modified man- 
ner. This service was in charge of the Rev. John Herbst, of Lititz, 
and the inspiring associations of the occasion were made use of to 
revive devout interest in this union of prayer. On Friday another 
funeral took place, that of Sarah Pyrlaeus, wife of John Christopher 
Pyrlaeus, Jr. 

On Whitsunday, May 25, there were six services : Morning prayer 
at nine o'clock; a general service with preaching, at half-past ten, 
and in the afternoon, beginning at three o'clock, a succession of 
short special services for the several choir divisions of the congre- 
gation in the old manner, several of the more nearly related choirs 
being, however, combined. At the evening service a young negro 
woman was baptized. Finally, on Whitmonday, an elaborate 
Gemeintag was observed somewhat after the old-time manner 
described in an earlier chapter, having .largely a missionary char- 
acter suitable to the associations of this great Christian festival. 
The first service was at nine o'clock, when interesting matter from 
the latest missionary reports was read. At half-past ten o'clock 
there was English preaching, at three o'clock there was another 
missionary meeting, at which a report was communicated from the 
Rev. John Peter Kluge, on the mission undertaken by the Rev. 
Abraham Luckenbach and himself among the Indians on the White 
River, in the present State of Indiana. The day was closed with one 
of the old-time antiphonal services of song, once so greatly enjoyed, 
and commonly spoken of as Liturgim — Liturgies — treating of the 
theme of Pentecost and the office of the Holy Spirit. Thus the 
present spacious Moravian Church of Bethlehem was consecrated 
and made use of for the first festive week. Very nearly a hundred 
years have passed since then, and therefore the details of its first 
history have an interest which may be increased when the centennial 
anniversary of its dedication draws near. 

A month after the consecration of the new church, July 19, 1806, 
two members of the Unity's Elders" Conference, with their wives, 
arrived in Bethlehem from Europe on an official visit, the Rev. 
Charles von Forestier and the Rev. John Renatus Verbeek. With 
them came four single men : two bound for North Carolina. John 



582 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Christian Burkhardt and Carsten Petersen, and two called to serve 
in the ministry of the Moravian Church in America, Emanuel Rond- 
thaler, who in later years was so long identified with the pastorate 
at Nazareth, and Charles Frederick Seidel, who after three years' 
service at Salem, N. C, and eight at Nazareth, was called, in 1817, 
to Bethlehem, where, excepting one interval of about three years, 
the remainder of his life, to 1861, was spent in various capacities, 
as minister, principal of the boarding-school and member of the 
Executive Board. He was associated with church and town for a 
longer time and through more great changes than any man who 
figures in the long list of Moravian ministers at Bethlehem, and will 
be frequently mentioned in these pages. Very significantly does his 
name appear at the epoch marked by the completion of the new 
church, when so many associations of the interesting past receded 
and the connections of the modern period opened. 





BETHLEHEM 
1805 
1810 



CHAPTER XVI. 



The Beginning of Modernizing Movements. 
1807 — 1825. 

The period embraced in this chapter extends over the most 
extreme efforts to maintain without modification the close regime 
under which Bethlehem, like all other Moravian villages, was 
brought by the re-organization completed in 1786. This period 
was one of decadence in some main elements of the system that had 
been gradually developed after 1769. This system was not only 
proving inadequate, even in Europe, to preserve its theoretical 
ideals of internal village life, but in America was becoming clearly 
an impossible thing. The people were no longer unique in a united 
religious purpose had in view as the reason for the existence of the 
settlement, and in enthusiastic loyalty to this purpose. They had no 
desire, therefore, to remain unique in the minor external features of 
regulation and custom that had in course of time become fixed in con- 
nection with the former purpose. However peculiarly interesting or 
quaintly pretty many such things might seem to the casual observer, 
people of the place who were living in touch with the times and their 
surroundings, in the aiifairs of business and in social relations, had no 
taste for posing as an attractive curiosity for the diversion of visi- 
tors. Various things which seemed very odd, particularly to 
untraveled and not well-read Americans, because different from pre- 
vailing ways, were, amid European surroundings, not at all striking, 
just as many other village customs and regulations, domestic 
arrangements, modes of dress and the like, prevailing also outside 
of Moravian circles in Germany and other countries, would, if trans- 
planted to America, have appeared very singular to such ; for narrow 
provincialism in all countries regards everything as queer that is 
different from its own customs and habits. In modern times more 
people travel and more cosmopolitan views prevail ; for even those 
who do not travel have the customs and habits of other people 
thrust upon their attention through the more general intermingling 

5S3 



584 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of varieties, so that those, both in the city and the country, who find 
all ways of people that are different from their own so strikingly 
absurd or amusing, constitute a relatively much smaller part of the 
population than was the case from fifty to a hundred years ago. 
While modern conditions tend to eliminate eccentricities and modify 
sharp contrasts in the customs and manners of society generally, 
they at the same time broaden views and make people more tolerant 
of differences. Not so many things are now regarded as outlandish 
as formerly, for well-informed people are more numerous. This 
fact is not confined to the ways of society and to domestic habits, 
but extends also to ecclesiastical matters. It is the person of narrow 
training and contracted horizon who is impressed by the oddity of 
organization, terminolog}^ ritual and custom in churches other than 
that in which he has been brought up. 

The system which governed the Moravian villages also naturally 
produced this same kind of narrowness to a striking degree among 
their people, besides fostering a certain characteristic self-com- 
placency and a kind of egotism that was sui gciwris. Therefore, 
while so many people elsewhere regarded their ways as peculiar and 
in some respects absurd, they, in turn, especially in matters more 
strictl}' ecclesiastical, lived in the happy indulgence of this narrow 
egotism which had its origin in the idea of earlier times that a Mora- 
vian congregation was one of culled out people ; an idea fostered 
vmduly by the exclusive system which had been instituted. That a 
degree of general culture prevailed that was far above the common 
country surroundings is an undeniable fact. That a degree of 
decorum and good manners marked even the plainest laboring 
classes of the community, far beyond that to be commonly met with 
among the same order of people in traveling the country, was a' 
characteristic of the Moravian village of those days that never failed 
to impress the stranger who entered its gates. 

The general cultivation of good music, as one of the refinements, 
reached a stage at Bethlehem hardly to be found anywhere else in 
the country. It attracted many to the place. Some of the leading 
compositions of the masters which during the preceding decade had 
been more generally introduced to the music-loving public in Euro- 
pean cities, were brought to Bethlehem and rendered, at least in 
part, before their production had been attempted anywhere else in 
America. A conspicuous instance was the first rendition of Haydn's 
oratorio, "The Creation" in 181 1. That musicians from the cities or 



i8o7 1825. 585 

visiting the United States from Europe were drawn to Bethlehem wSs 
natural, and during the years now under review the records of the 
place frequently refer to such visits by performers of note, and to con- 
certs in which they had the satisfaction of rendering music of a high 
order to an audience by taste and training capable of appreciating 
it. The pleasing and impressive character of the services of the 
sanctuary heightened by this assiduous cultivation of music, which 
fills such an important place in the general liturgicum of the Mora- 
vian Church, was one of the most notable things in Bethlehem; and 
in those days, as well as in modern times, it was a common thing 
for people to visit the place at the seasons of high festivals for the 
purpose of enjoying the music. 

The visitor could not fail, furthermore, to be impressed by a pre- 
vailing friendhness and disposition to accommodate, and by a style 
of intercourse among the people that bore evidence of a relation not 
merely as fellow-citizens, but as brethren, on a religious as well as 
a social ground, existing between them. The church routine main- 
tained and the nature of the services and sermons suggested the 
prevalence of deep piety as one of the characteristics of the place. 
But with all this which appeared on the surface, there was much 
beneath and behind it that was far from ideal. In many cases, reli- 
giousness was largely a matter of conventional habit, and among 
the population born and bred in the place and trained to all of its 
■external ways, there were persons enough whose real character and 
life were by no means superior. There was that in the religious 
training of the time which tended to produce a refined type of 
hypocrisy among some kinds of people. The conspicuous appear- 
ance of fraternal relations did not have beneath it a greater measure 
•of cordial good will between man and man, in many cases, than pre- 
vails between well-disposed fellow-citizens and neighbors in other 
villages. The common rivalries, jealousies and bickerings of people 
existed among many Moravians in Bethlehem just as they did 
among people elsewhere and as they do among many of them in 
modern times, when there is less show of fraternity in mode of 
address and general habit of speech. Indeed, after the harmonious 
enthusiasm of former times had disappeared, many of the more 
petty disturbances of cordial relations were aggravated by the close 
regime under which men had to deal with each other at such short 
range, were crowded into such intimate contact with one another's 
perversities, frailties and foibles, and felt each other's angularities 



586 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

more forcibly in the contracted relations in which they had to jostle 
each other in struggling for the elbow-room more easily afiforded 
by the larger freedom of modern times. The spirit of chronic criti- 
cism and fault-finding, referred to in the previous chapter as one of 
the unpleasant products of the old Moravian village system, grew 
with the increased stringency by which those who were trying to 
maintain it in its extreme character sought to correct irregularities 
and abuses. The general system was entering upon an ordeal of 
severe strain at the opening of the period of which this chapter 
treats. This came partly through the growing determination of 
many to be rid of the burden of antiquated rules and methods which 
they would no longer endure, and partly through controversy in 
matters of finance and property, in which the struggle was not so 
much with inflexible regulations as with domineering men. An 
acute condition of things in both features of the ordeal was brought 
on in connection with the several chief events of this period, as will 
appear in their narration. 

The deputies of the Unity's Elders' Conference who arrived in 
Bethlehem in July, 1806, as stated in the preceding chapter — the 
Rev. John Renatus Verbeek and the Rev. Charles von Forestier — 
closed their official labors in America by convening a conference 
of ministers at Bethlehem which was in session, September 14 to 16, 
1807, and on September 28, they left to return to Europe. No 
material changes of organization or supervision were made during 
their stay, the policy of that time being to endeavor to tone up and 
strengthen the existing system. Several things of importance 
resulted, however, from their visit, which had to do partly with 
retrogression and decay and partly with plans for the future which 
had life and progress in view. Of the first sort was the termination 
of the once promising organization and institutions of Hope, New 
Jersey, which had sunk under a burden of debt with no prospect 
of recuperation. This settlement, besides the disadvantage of 
unhealthy surroundings, was too weak to survive the dead- 
ening system of the time, as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz and 
Salem, N. C, did. After arranging for the disposition of 
the mill, farm, store and other appurtenances of the estab- 
lishment; for locating and utilizing various officials, artisans and 
laborers of the place, and for measures to get rid of the prop- 
erty, the deputies formally made the melancholy announcement 
at Hope on May 26, 1807, that the place would be abandoned as a 
church-village. Some of the people were given a home and employ- 



i8o7 1825. 587 

ment at Bethlehem, others at Nazareth, at Lititz and at Salem. The 
services of Easter Sunday, April 17, 1808, terminated the histor_v of 
the place as a Moravian settlement. Occasional services were sub- 
sequently held there by Moravian ministers, it being regarded as a 
mere preaching-place, but even these did not continue long. An 
offer by the Messrs. Kraemer and Horn of $48,000 for the main 
body of the property had been submitted to the lot with an affirma- 
tive result and was definitely accepted on September 19, 1807. There- 
upon the sale was made and the place ceased to be the property of 
the Moravian Church. A residue that was leased was finally sold 
in February, 1835, for $9000 to Abraham Bininger, of Camden, N. Y. 
Another move inaugurated at the same time under the direction 
of Verbeek and Forestier had a more cheering character, even 
though its early years were attended by circumstances that caused 
disagreeable disturbances, starting the first active revolt against 
the narrow, rigid system of the time. This was the establishment 
of a Theological Seminary to take the place of the importation of 
all regularly educated ministers from Europe, which was no longer 
feasible. This enterprise had been particularly advocated by the 
Rev. Jacob Van Vleck while he was principal of Nazareth Hall and 
was laboring to elevate the standard of his teaching force by secur- 
ing classically educated men from Europe, and by the Rev. Christian 
Lewis Benzien, of Salem, N. C. The project had been discussed 
for some time without results ; difficulties seemed to have blocked 
the way, and Van Vleck was making arrangements in the summer 
of 1807, to send his subsequently distinguished son, William Henry, 
to Europe with the deputies of the governing board, to pursue his 
theological studies, when the question was re-opened. A letter 
from the Unity's Elders' Conference cordially favoring and encour- 
aging the undertaking was received in August. They proposed to 
appropriate the necessary amount from the general educational fund 
of the Unity for the support of young Van Vleck and also of another 
candidate, eventually a well-known bishop, executive official and 
musician, Peter Wolle, son of a West India missionary of the same 
name, they having both completed the course of study at Nazareth 
Hall. It was stipulated, however, that the institution, if founded, 
should not be a tax on that treasury bej^ond these appropriations 
at the beginning. Then it was decided, on September 8, to take this 
important step in a modest way with these two students as the first 
class. A sreneral scheme and a curriculum were elaborated bv Ver- 



588 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

beek and Forestier. Ernst Lewis Hazelius, who had arrived in iSoo 
and was employed at advanced teaching in Nazareth Hall — the most 
gifted and best educated, both classically and theologically, among 
the men available — was appointed as professor, to be assisted by 
the other theologically educated and most capable of the teachers, 
John Christian Bechler, who, like Rondthaler and Seidel, mentioned 
in the previous chapter, had come over from Europe in 1806. It 
was arranged to combine the institution with Nazareth Hall. On 
September 26, a proposition was made by Jacob Van Vleck and con- 
curred in by the General Helpers' Conference to add a third stvident 
to the class. This was Samuel Reinke — the venerable bishop, well- 
remembered by many — a son of the Rev. Abraham Reinke and a 
grandson of the Rev. Abraham Reinke, Sr., who fifty years before 
figured prominently at Bethlehem and Nazareth. Young Reinke 
had been a fellow-pupil, at Nazareth Hall, of Van Vleck, who entered 
in 1799, and of Wolle, who entered in 1800. He was employed at 
this time in the store at Nazareth, but, as Principal Van Vleck 
stated, did not like the place, did not seem adapted for mercantile 
life and undoubtedly would soon be useful as a teacher. 

On October 2, 1807, with these three students, Hazelius and Bech- 
ler commenced their work and the Moravian College and Theo- 
logical Seminarv had its humble beginning. In 1809 difficulties 
arose in connection with this institution. Besides the lack of clear- 
ness in the relations held to it by the General Conference of Helpers 
and the Elders' Conference at Nazareth respectively, which caused 
misunderstandings, it soon became evident that the former body 
would not be able to enforce the kind of supervision and regulations, 
in all minute details, which, under the system of the time, they 
thought they must exercise. The dominant spirits among them, the 
Rev. John Gebhard Cunow seconded by the Rev. Andrew Benade, 
were disposed to press such supervision to an extent which Professor 
Hazelius chafed under as offensively pragmatical and a species of 
petty tyranny. Strained relations developed which, with a different 
kind of men in control, might easily have been restored, but which at 
last issued in a complete rupture. Hazelius had taken some unneces- 
sary liberties, was hasty and indiscreet in issuing a manifesto and 
enlisting co-operation, and in general seemed too ambitious to head 
a premature crusade. A variety of objectionable features in the 
official regime of the time, extraneous to the points in contention, 
were merged in a body of grievances in which common cause was 



iSo; 1825. 589 

made by sonae leading men at Nazareth with whom the Professor 
was personally very popular and who warmly espoused his cause. 
Then that most flagrant of all offences in those days, "insubor- 
dination," an offence which officials of Cunow's waj' of thinking could 
condone less than an}- other, put the General Conference to the 
necessity of asserting themselves. Involved in it all was the inquisi- 
torial meddling of the authorities in men's private affairs, which so 
many could no longer brook, and the unbearable supervision of 
officialdom in the matter of contracting marriages, with the appli- 
cation of the lot not yet relaxed, against the excessive use of which, 
in all kinds of matters, an almost irresistible opposition had begun to 
appear. Some, particularly Cunow, insisted upon it with an insensate 
determination to enforce every letter of the oppressive regulations 
regardless of consequences. Other men in the general board were 
not in sympathy with his extreme views and were disposed to accom- 
modate some things, not only in the interest of peace but also in 
the interest of common sense and in the line of modifications in the 
system that were imperatively demanded. They were placed in a 
difficult position by the supposed necessity of preserving collegiate 
relations and of standing together. 

The situation was rendered very trying for Bishop Loskiel, who 
was constrained to act contrary to his personal inclinations, but 
especially for Jacob Van Meek, who was a man of more liberal views 
than Cunow and Benade, and, unlike them, was disposed to be gen- 
erous and conciliatory. He was for a while placed in the perplexing 
situation of being a member of the General Board of Helpers and 
at the same time President of the Elders' Conference at Nazareth 
which disputed some points of control over the young divinity 
school with the General Board. Furthermore, he stood, as Head 
Pastor at Nazareth, in relations of a kind which did not trouble 
Cunow and Benade. to the men of that place who were siding wath 
Hazelius, while he felt a warm interest in the latter as the leading 
man in his educational corps, too valuable to be alienated for insuffi- 
cient reasons. He w"as also most interested in the new institution 
which he had so strongly plead for and to the prosperity of which 
he attached so much importance. Thus strangely the Theological 
Seminary became the storm center where the disturbed elements 
began the agitation that was to break forth and clear the heavy 
atmosphere. 

It was the beginning of movements that issued, during the next 
decade, in the first breach made in the close regime of the time, and 



590 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

therefore has a proper place here as revealing the genesis of develop- 
ments yet to be narrated. Things even went so far that some of 
the men at Nazareth — among whom William Henry, Jr., founder 
of the gun-factory; Dr. Schmidt, Christian Senseman, the store- 
keeper, and Frederick Beitel, son of the former wagon-master and 
farmer-general at Bethlehem took the lead — had the temerity to 
hold a meeting, without official sanction or authority, and even 
to elect a chairman and secretary, in order to give formal expres- 
sion to their views on the situation as also on various related 
matters. The fathers of the General Conference stood aghast 
at this unprecedented act of "insubordination." A document 
drawn up by Benade, discussed, amended and adopted by the 
General Conference, was sent to Nazareth to be read to these 
daring men. Their radical step had gone so far that Jacob Van 
Vleck and the Elders' Conference at Nazareth felt officially bound 
to concur in calling them to account. Quite unabashed they 
returned answer, in which they expressed their sentiments concerning 
Cunow and Benade against whom, particularly the former, strong 
feehng prevailed. Cunow had even been accused by some of 
persistently harrying Professor Hazelius for the purpose of discour- 
aging him and thus frustrating the plan of the new institution, 
because he had been overruled when it was decided to locate it at 
Nazareth instead of Bethlehem, where he wished to have it under his 
eye. A new sensation was caused a few weeks later by the discovery 
that the document written by Hazelius, discussing the system and 
methods of the time, had been copied and sent to Bethlehem, Lititz, 
Philadelphia, Lancaster, New York and even Salem, N. C. Now all 
the members of the General Conference of Helpers, including the 
Rev. John Herbst, of Lititz, who had not attended the previous 
meeting, assembled at Bethlehem to draw up another manifesto to 
be sent to all of these places. But they had more to reckon with 
than they supposed. Early in June they had before them a 'copy of 
a paper signed by twenty-seven men of Nazareth which was to be 
sent to the Unity's Elders' Conference, setting forth not only their 
views on the contention between the Board of General Helpers and 
the Professor at Nazareth, but also a list of grievances under the 
existing system of government and a strong protest against various 
harassing restrictions and particularly against the excessive use of 
the lot. This, as it then entered into the machinery of government, 
had far less the character of great faith in God than of great lack 



i8o7 1825. 591 

of faith in men. Instead of being, as it once was before it was 
reduced to system, a simple-hearted way of occasionally seeking 
guidance in perplexities, in the belief that the result, being inde- 
pendent of human will or judgment, was therefore to be taken as 
Divinely overruled and directed, it had become a complicated system 
of perfunctory official mechanism by which either the responsibility 
of judgment and choice was evaded, or objections of people to the 
results of official action were supposed to be silenced because these 
results did not then rest on the will or judgment of any man or 
body of men. Next to its employment in ultimately deciding the 
question of a proposed marriage, which was becoming intolerable 
to many, its use in making up the personnel of boards and confer- 
ences was most strongly objected to. The simple, fervent piety- 
requisite to an acceptable employment of such a method did not 
exist. In the absence of this it became a grievous yoke and even 
seemed to many sheer mockery, in view of the theory under which 
it was used and the phraseology employed in connection with it ; 
especially when they were unable to credit those officials who insisted 
upon its full retention, with the exalted spirit, thoughts and purposes 
which belonged to the practice. 

If the situation of that time is analyzed it is not surprising that 
intelligent independence of thought was emboldened to take this 
initiative at Nazareth rather than at Bethlehem. At the latter place 
where those who dominated the official policy of the time lived, their 
constant presence, their connection with the village boards and 
their consequent personal touch with all local affairs rendered it more 
difficult to make any such attempt. Besides this, when the asso- 
ciations of the two places as educational centers are had in mind, it 
is easy to understand how opinion and purpose would more readily 
develop and acquire force in the academic atmosphere of Nazareth 
Hall than in that of the girls' school at Bethlehem. 

In 1809, while these complications were at their height, a new 
man appeared upon the scene who, although he assumed a cautious 
attitude, was inclined to side with the liberal party at Nazareth and 
Bethlehem. This was Charles Frederick Seidel, who came from 
North Carolina as Principal of Nazareth Hall and associate minister 
there, when Jacob Van Vleck became Head Pastor. He was a man 
of varied accomplishments, engaging personality and specially 
gifted as a preacher. The general popularity he enjoyed among the 
people added force to the awakening and stirring tendency that had 



592 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

set in, and led to his soon being looked upon, notwithstanding his 
cautious course, as at variance with the position and policy repre- 
sented by Cunow and Benade who evidently also regarded him as 
not fully in sympathy with them. The whole matter between them 
and Hazelius, in reference to the lot and other things, with the 
memorial of the citizens of Nazareth and various questions growing 
out of the trouble, were referred to the Unity's Elders" Conference. 
Their opinions and decisions were received in July, 1810. While 
they sustained the position taken by the Board of General Helpers 
on the main questions, they did not approve the course pursued at 
the beginning" towards HazeHus. They thought that it unnecessarily 
irritated relations and brought on trouble which might have been 
averted. A protracted succession of interviews, personal reconcili- 
ations and readjustments with the representative men at Nazareth 
followed, and matters settled down for the time being; but the 
entering wedge had been inserted, and not withdrawn, for cleaving 
and shattering the strait-jacket in which the old system held men and 
things. The scene of disturbance was afterwards shifted to Beth- 
lehem with new elements entering into the contention. 

As to the Theological Seminary, that and the Moravian Church 
lost Hazelius, who, in later years, arose to influence and honor in 
the Lutheran Church, into which he was followed by the Rev. Joseph 
Zaeslein who had come to Pennsylvania with him in 1800. His 
colleague, Bechler, continued in charge of the work, but felt little 
encouragement to persevere in it. The young institution, which 
needed much fostering care, received a serious blow from these 
unfortunate disturbances. The first three students completed their 
studies. Only two constituted the next class, Charles Anthony Van 
Vleck, a younger brother of William Henry, and George Benjamin 
Miller, a son of the Rev. George Godfrey Miller and a grandson 
of John Levering who, with his wife Susanna, a daughter of John 
Bechtel, had been conected with the early schools of the Church. 
Young Miller became disafifected under the methods of tutelage that 
were so irksome to ever increasing numbers of young men. He fol- 
lowed his former teacher Hazelius into the Lutheran Church, notwith- 
standing the efiforts made by his uncle, Abraham Levering, at this 
time warden at Lititz, and John Christian Ebbecke, of Nazareth, to 
persuade him to be reconciled. He, in later years, became con- 
spicuous as the honored President of Hartwick Seminary. It ma}- be 
added in this connection that, a few years later, yet another gifted 



i8o7 1825. 593 

young man, who could not be persuaded to submit to the shackles 
of the time, left the service of the Church and attained distinction 
elsewhere. This was Henry Immanuel Schmidt, a son of Dr. 
Schmidt, of Nazareth, long connected with the faculty of Columbia 
College in New York. It may be stated, however, that all of them, 
Dr. HazeHus, Dr. Miller and Dr. Schmidt, notwithstanding the 
breach between them, in their young days, and the officials who were 
persisting in keeping the Moravian Church under the bondage of a 
system that so cramped and repressed men, retained a warm regard 
for the Church of their youth and were on terms of cordial friendship 
with many of its later ministers. The Seminary was closed in 181 1. 
In 1820 it was re-opened with a class of three candidates for the 
ministry: Charles Adolphus Blech, Samuel Thomas Pfohl, and 
Jacob Zorn. Their professors were Charles Van Vleck, already 
mentioned, and John Christian Jacobson, who, in later years, long 
filled a prominent place in the Moravian Church as educator, bishop 
and President of the Executive Board. He arrived in Bethlehem 
from Europe on August 18, 1816, and began his long career in the 
service of the Church as a teacher in Nazareth Hall, Bechler being 
then Principal. After that the Seminary had an unbroken although, 
until 1858, migratory existence.^ 

While the complications which have just been described were 
engaging the church authorities and spreading the contagion of 
unrest. among the people at Bethlehem, a crisis was approaching in 
the aiTairs of another establishment which caused much perplexity 
and, in connection with other difficulties which ensued, led to serious 
disturbances, issuing in events of importance. This was the estab- 

I In 1S30 it was moved out of the Hall into the little building in the yard to the west, long 
known as " the Cottage." On May 10, 1838, it was transferred, the first time, to Bethlehem 
where it remained, in a building on the north side of Broad Street, a little distance west of 
New Street, until August 5, 1S51, when it was moved back to Nazareth. E.xcepting an in- 
terval from August, 1S55, to November, 1856, when as an emergency arrangement, one 
class of students sojourned in Philadelphia, the institution remained at Nazareth until the 
autumn of 1858. During the Nazareth periods a part of the old Sisters' House now known 
as '' the castle " at Nazaretli Hall, was also occupied for a while by one of the classes, but 
the principal home of the institution was the old Whitefield House which in those days 
came to be called Ephrata, the name Whitefield is said to have intended to give his pro- 
posed Nazareth orphanage, and by which the place is now commonly known. August 30, 
1858, the Seminary was transferred finally to Bethlehem and re-opened in the remodeled 
school-building on Church Street, east of New Street, before that known as Nisky Hill 
Seminary, where it remained until 1S92, when the present buildings were taken possession of. 
39 



594 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

lishmelit of the single men, which had retrograded numerically, 
financially and in general tone to such an extent that, when another 
of the regularly recurring deficits at the close of the fiscal year, in 
the summer of 1809, was under discussion, the proposition was made 
in the Conference of General Helpers to close out and abolish that 
diacony,- turn the large house to other uses, fit up quarters for the 
single men who yet remained together, in a smaller house and modify 
their choir organization into merely that of a division of the mem- 
bership, put under special pastoral oversight. The frequentty men- 
tioned stone house on Main Street, which had been put to such 
various uses, and at this time was occupied in part by the boys' 
school, and in part by sundry Economy pensioners and others as a 
dwelling, was had in mind for such a modified organization of single 
men ; it being thought that several of the minor trades by which a 
few of the older men could eke out a living might be continued in 
that building. 

The idea had been broached by the Unity's Elders' Conference, 
Avhen the erection of a second building for the boarding-school was 
first under consideration, of devoting the Brethren's House to the use 
■of the school and re-establishing the single men elsewhere on a 
modified plan. This was now again discussed. The school was 
prospering and would doubtless soon need all the room this building 
contained, and the building erected in 1790, could be put to other 
uses. To a lesser but yet serious degree, financial perplexities were 
involved in maintaining the other choir diaconies, not only at 
Bethlehem, but also at Nazareth and Lititz. The amounts which the 
General Board of Wardens in Europe had to appropriate from year 
to year to cover their deficiencies were becoming a severe tax on 
the common resources. When this and all other aspects of the 
question were discussed by the Unity's Elders' Conference — the 
General Wardens of the Unity constituted a department of that 
body — after the reports and accounts of 1810 were received, it was 
concluded to risk further losses and make another effort to maintain 

= This term, formerly in common use. meant, as explained in a previous chapter, a fund, 
treasury and general financial system by which an organization, establishment or line of 
activity was supported — congregation-diacony, the several choir diaconies of the single 
men, single women and widows, sustentation, school and mission diaconies. The several 
trades and industries carried on as sources of income for one and another diacony were 
called, in the German nomenclature of the Church; Branchen, a term brought into use in 
the days of Frenchified German, in the sense of special departments of productive 
activity operated by the diacony. 




3ETHLEHEM, 1810 



i8o7 1825. 595 

the Brethren's House at Bethlehem, by putting it under new manage- 
ment and introducing various retrenchments and reforms. On 
February 22, 181 1, Thomas Christian Lueders arrived in Bethlehem 
from Europe, to take charge of the establishment as chaplain and 
warden, and co-operate with the Rev. John Frederick Stadiger, the 
warden of the Congregation since 1808, in the effort to rehabilitate 
some of the industries and get the finances into better shape. Prior 
to this, from August, 1808, John Jacob Kummer, the successor of 
Jacob Frederick Loeffler, had been at the head of the establishment 
of the single men, assisted by Jacob Christian Luckenbach,'' who 
put forth loyal efforts to maintain the several industries yet carried 
on by it, and who subsequently took charge of one of the branches, 
that of tin and copper work, on his own account and built it up into 
a permanent business. 

The Rev. John Gebhard Cunow, in his capacity as Administrator 
of the Unity's estates in Pennsylvania and agent of the General 
'Wardens of the Unity, did not favor these further efforts. He 
being, under the interlocked organization of officialdom at that 
time, a member also of the two village boards, the Conference of 
Elders and the Board of Supervisors — Aiifseher Collegium — as well as 
a member and the dominant personality of the General Helper's 
Conference, and therefore to be met and reckoned with everywhere, 
made his disapproval felt in an obstructive way. It was not 
long, therefore, before he, on the one hand, and Stadiger 
and Lueders, on the other hand, were at issue on various points 
in the complicated situation. In this connection other changes 
in the official personnel may be noted, so that a proper association 
of officials and events may be preserved in the course of things now 
to follow. Bishop Loskiel, disheartened by the difficulties of the 
situation in which he labored in the midst of prevailing disaffection, 
and broken in health, was relieved of his duties in May, 181 1, and 
after some months of retirement, received a call to return to Europe ; 
first to the head of the work at Gnadenfrei in Silesia, and then, after 
the death of Bishop Jeremiah Risler, to a seat in the Unity's Elders' 
Conference. Before he was read)' to start, the war with England 
broke out, rendering ocean travel precarious and detaining him. 
Meanwhile his phvsical infirmities increased. An opportunity to sail 
on the ship George Washington for Liverpool, in July, 1812, was 

3 Son-in-law of the missionary John Heckewelder, and father of the late Henry B., 
Reuben O., and' J. Edward Luckenbach. 



596 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

considered but let pass. When another opportunity occurred in 
September, Dr. Rudolphi, who was then at Bethlehem, strongly 
dissuaded him from attempting the journey. Amidst the sympathies 
of all, he resigned himself to quietly await the outcome of his 
ailments. He departed this life at Bethlehem on February 23, 1814, 
and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery where the dust of 
so many revered men already reposed, and where "Tschoop" and 
other notable converts of that race lay buried which, before he came 
to America, had awakened his special interest and led him to write 
the valuable book through which he has chiefly become known, his 
"History of the Missions of the Brethren Among the Indians of 
North America." 

He was suceeded, in May, 181 1, as President of the General 
Helpers' Conference and Head Pastor at Bethlehem, by Bishop 
Charles Gotthold Reichel, previously at the head of afifairs at Salem, 
North Carolina. The Rev. Andrew Benade remained Principal of the 
boarding-school and associate minister at Bethlehem until January, 
1813, when he went to Lititz to succeed the Rev. Jacob Van Vleck 
as Head Pastor; Van Vleck, who had been transferred to that 
position from Nazareth in 181 1, now following in office Bishop John 
Herbst, who died a short time after his consecration to the episco- 
pacy and transfer from Lititz to Salem. The Rev. Lewis Huebener, 
in January, 1813, followed Benade as Principal and associate minister 
at Bethlehem, but died, greatly mourned by school and congregation, 
in December of the same year. Cunow then filled the place ad interim 
until the close of 1815, when Bishop Reichel assumed the Principal's 
duties until February, 1816. The Rev. Christian Frederick Schaaf 
remained at Bethlehem, devoting himself to pastoral labor among 
the married people of the place and engaging in various other duties. 
The men who figured principally in the interminable deliberations 
and debates which finally issued in a solution of the Brethren's 
House problem and then, in connection with various related 
questions, which enHsted the active participation of prominent 
laymen at Bethlehem, ran out on other lines and brought a subse- 
quent crisis, were, besides Bishop Reichel, as President of the 
General Conference of Helpers and Head Pastor at Bethlehem, 
Cunow, as Administrator, Benade, of Lititz, and Abraham Reinke, of 
Nazareth, as members of the General Conference, besides the two 
wardens, Stadiger and Lueders. Thus it will be seen that the two 
last named were the only principal parties to these official discussions 



i8o7 1825. 597 

who, in the interlinked make-up of the boards, represented exclu- 
sively the local interests of Bethlehem, especially in material 
concerns. In the conflict of opinions and interests, they formed 
together a kind of distinct party of those combined bodies in some 
of the important questions at issue. This appears quite strikingly 
in some of the minutes of the General Helpers' Conference. On 
the other hand, in the persons of Benade, of Lititz, and Reinke, of 
Nazareth, as members of that Conference, the aead pastors of two 
other congregations, or, in other words, the presidents of the ruling 
boards of two other villages were, at a subsequent stage of the 
complications, helping to officially deliberate and act upon grave 
questions in controversy which related exclusively to the property 
and finances of the village of Bethlehem — questions of a kind which 
had not arisen in connection with their own villages — were even 
eventually helping their colleague, the Administrator, to antagonize 
the local officials and citizens of Bethlehem in action they proposed 
to take with their own property. The extraordinary state of affairs 
finally produced by the manner in which supervision and control were 
then organized, did much to impress thinking men with the objec- 
tionableness of the system and the necessity of amending it. Such 
a product of the old principle of community of interests had not 
been contemplated when the system was created. 

In September, 1812, when the General Wardens in Europe finally 
wrote that they would not be able to further support the choir house 
diaconies that were carried on at a loss every year, because to 
pursue this course any longer would plunge the whole Unity into 
bankruptcy, the question what to do with the institution of the single 
men at Bethlehem was taken up anew. The diacony of the single 
men at Nazareth had been closed out on May i, 1812. That at Lititz 
was yet continued for a while. At Bethlehem the financial condition 
of the concern had not improved. There was much indifference and 
even lack of conscientiousness among the single men, according to 
the records of the General Helpers' Conference. Carelessness and 
extravagance in the culinary department and unnecessary expense 
in .entertaining many visitors were complained of. This latter fault 
was also found with the Sisters' House. It was even intimated — and 
probably not without reason — that certain ones were disposed to 
help on the ruin of the diacony so that they might capture some 
wreckage, in getting control of certain trades to their own advan- 
taare. At an interview had bv the General Conference with Stadiger 



59° A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and Lueders in November, 1812, it appeared that the excess of 
HabiHties, as shown by the books, was $11,447, but should really be 
put down at more than $16,000, because the buildings were booked 
much too high. Lueders was of the opinion that, among the 
industries yet controlled by the Brethren's House diacony, the oil- 
mill, the tobacco-factory and the slaughter-house might be made 
decidedly profitable under competent and conscientious manage- 
ment; but that the defective wording of the leases, as then drawn, 
placed the diacony at a disadvantage and enabled those who vvere 
so disposed to deal unfairly with it. Thus matters dragged on into 
1813. In January of that year, an even more startling presentation 
was made by Cunow, who was for pressing the issue. He declared 
that if the creditors became urgent the diacony would be bankrupt, 
and that it should immediately go into liquidation. 

Two courses were considered. One was that the Warden of the 
Congregation simply assume the estate and let it then transpire to 
what extent the Board of General Wardens in Europe would stand 
for the liabilities. The other was to appoint assignees, either the 
General Wardens, or the Bethlehem Warden, or both in conjunction; 
if jointly, the latter to administer for the former as agent, if the 
latter became assignee alone, the Warden of the Brethren's House 
to administer, but in any case private parties who held claims, and 
not the Unity's Wardens who held the chief claim, to be preferred 
creditors. The first of these plans was eventually adopted. Cunow, 
in further pressing action, had a proposition entered in the minutes 
of the General Helpers' Conference on February 16, 1813, to close 
out the Brethren's House diacony by June i, of that year, and not 
await an answer from the General Wardens of the Unity, inasmuch 
as it was highly improbable that they would assume the heavy liabili- 
ties except by direction of a General Synod. He had meanwhile 
written to them, strongly urging this position. Thus he moved to 
crowd the burden upon the Bethlehem Congregation diacony. When 
the objection was made that another interview ought first to be 
had with Stadiger and Lueders, he had a paragraph added to the 
entry, to the efifect that such a further interview with them was not 
deemed necessary. Although the closing out did not take place, 
June I, because it was held by all, excepting Cunow, to be too early 
a date, he thus prepared for the position he afterwards assumed, by 
putting himself on record as totally opposed to the continuance of 
the establishment after that time. In October the question of the 




JOHN SCHROPP <2nd) „0HN FREDERICK STADIGER 

LOUIS DAVID DE SCHWEINITZ 

WILLIAM HENRY VAN VLECK JOHN CHRISTOPHER BRICKENSTEIN 



i8o7 1825. 599 

disposition to be made of the large Brethren's House was more 
specifically discussed. There were three plans. One was to convert 
it into a second hotel. Misgivings about its proximity to the 
church were answered by the opinion that probably guests at a 
hotel would not create more disturbance during hours of service than 
some occupants of the Brethren's House were in the habit of doing. 
This indicated a state of affairs not much to the credit of the Single 
Brethren of that time. Another plan was to retain a section of it as 
a mere dwelling for those occupants who wished to remain together, 
they simply paying a stipulated rental, and to fit up the remainder 
of the building to be let to families. The third was that finally 
adopted, to move the boarding-school into the building and make 
use of that occupied by the school for family homes and day-school 
rooms. 

February 3, 1814, a meeting of the single men was called at which 
the final decision concurred in by the General Helpers' Conference, 
the local Elders' Conference and the village Board of Supervision, 
was communicated. Even the idea of giving them quarters in the 
old Economy House on Main Street had been abandoned because 
there seemed to be no way of raising the necessary rent of $80 a 
year. Some of the single men who were earning wages cared too 
little about the matter, and others did not realize that the end had 
really come, and that the generous practice of the financial authorities 
in Etirope to pay their debts for the sake of maintaining their insti- 
tution, largeh' as a mere matter of sentiment, had ceased. Some true- 
hearted, good men among them deplored this culmination of things 
and some of the older men who were ill-adapted to any other mode 
of life, were much dismaved at the prospect ; but official assurance 
was given that the personal situation of each one would be duly 
considered and the aged and infirm would be properly cared for. 
During the last week in February, Bishop Reichel and the wardens 
Stadiger and Lueders had a special consultation on further arrange- 
ments with those of them who were of age, and, the first week in 
March, had an interview with the fathers and masters of those who 
were minors, in reference to their board and lodging. On April 9, the 
closing service was held in the chapel of the building by Bishop 
Reichel. The associations of the occasion were in pathetic contrast 
to those of the dedication and first occupation of it, sixty-six years 
before. By April 16. the moving out was completed, and thus 
ended the history of the Single Brethren's House at Bethlehem. 



600 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

On June 28, 1814, Cunow presented a plan — which was officially 
approved — of the necessary alterations to the building for the 
purposes of the boarding-school. Some principal items of the plan 
were, to increase the height of the windows in front and at the 
gable-ends ; to fit up a dining-room in the north-west section on the 
first floor, and construct a stairway leading up to this from the 
kitchen in the basement; to remove the stairway running up in the 
center of the house and, instead of this, build stairways at both ends 
for increased convenience and greater safety in case of fire. New 
floors were laid throughout the house and there was much work for 
carpenters and joiners, plasterers, painters and glaziers in connection 
with all the details of renovation and fitting up, both inside and 
outside of the building, while the grounds in the rear received the 
attention needed to prepare them for their new use. The work 
proceeded with the characteristic deliberateness of the time, and it 
was late in the autumn of 181 5, before everything was ready for the 
transfer of the school to its new quarters. This took place on 
November 10, of that year. There was a formal procession from 
the vacated building to the more imposing one now to be occupied. 
It was headed by Cunow, as temporary Principal, and his wife, with 
sundry clergy of Bethlehem and Nazareth. They were greeted, on 
their approach, by the music of the trombones from the belvedere or 
roof-terrace of the building. A processional hymn was sung by the 
clergy, tutoresses and pupils as they filed in, and when all had assem- 
bled in the large room which was to serve as a chapel, a formal but 
simple dedicatory service was held, after which the distribution of 
the room-companies and other internal arrangements were pro- 
ceeded with. Thus began the history of the occupation of that 
interesting building by what may now be called in these pages, no 
longer the boarding-school, but the Young Ladies' Seminary; this 
latter name having never been associated with the institution in its 
former quarters, but having been first adopted in the course of the 
new period now opened.* 

The vacated building, the erection and the ultimate fate of which 
have been treated of in the preceding chapter, had very little subse- 

4 The total number of persons connected with the school on this occasion was 132. There 
were 80 boarders and 10 "day-scholars" connected with the boarding-school proper; 24 in 
the day-school for girls organized in a separate room with its own teachers^ — -an arrangement 
which continued many years — and 18 adults; teachers, stewardess and matron. The record 
states that the whole number enrolled in the boarding-school proper, beginning with the first 
from outside of Bethlehem in J 786, to ihis time was 965. 



i8o7 1825. 601 

quent history associated with it, of a kind that got on record. As 
alread}- stated, its school character did not become entirely obsolete, 
for, besides affording dwellings for various successive occupants, it 
was in. part made use of at various periods by a section of the boys' 
school of the village, in its latter years by part of the town-school 
for girls for a while, and at one time also by a primary school for 
girls. While the regular day-school for girls was, during the most 
of the period prior to 1858, appended to the Young Ladies' Semi- 
nary — the histor}' of which has long been before the public in the 
well-known "Souvenir" — the boys' school of Bethlehem, from the 
Revolutionary period up to 1823, had an irregular and at intervals 
obscure and unsatisfactory character. It was at times somewhat 
neglected, left in charge occasionally of unsuitable and incompetent 
persons for whom some kind of employment had to be found, and 
filled such an unimportant place that the records contain very little 
concerning it. Then again times came when the authorities and 
citizens of the village were stirred to improve it and render it more 
efficient ; re-organization took place and more competent teachers 
were put in charge. Much of its unsatisfactory character at some 
periods was due to the fact that, because of the lack of resources 
from which to properly salarize men, many, even of the more com- 
petent teachers, had to combine this with other duties, or were 
employed, as a mere temporary make-shift, while sojourning at 
Bethlehem recruiting their health or awaiting appointment to other 
positions. The provisions for the education of boys at Bethlehem 
lost much of their earlier importance after the re-establishment of 
Nazareth Hall in 1785, for then the few boys who were to receive a 
more thorough education were sent to that institution, either as 
boarders or as "day-scholars" living with relatives at Nazareth. This 
disadvantage under which the majority of the Bethlehem boys who 
could not be sent to the Hall were placed, continued for some years, 
even after the people of the village began to discuss the need of 
remedying it. The charge occasionally made, at one period, was 
perhaps not entirely groundless, that the clerical officials and a few 
leading men who controlled the situation, because they either 
enjoyed ex-ofUcio privileges at Nazareth Hall or were financially able 
to send their sons to that institution, were not disposed to properly 
"bestir themselves in the interest of those who were less fortunate. 
The chief difficulty, however, lay in the fact that so many of the 
people of Moravian villages were not trained to paj' for what they 



602 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

received or wanted, and many were willing to be satisfied with an 
ordinary common-school like those of neighboring villages if some- 
thing better meant increased expense for them. The former superior 
advantages, under which people were accustomed to regard them- 
selves as mere beneficiaries, had ceased under financial pressure, 
and the modern large benefits of the principle established in the 
financial settlement of 1771, that the cause of education should have 
the benefit of a part of the estate that fell to the share of Bethlehem, 
did not begin to be substantially realized until a period long subse- 
quent to that covered by this chapter. 

As a rule, during the entire time from the re-organization after 
the Revolution up to the building of the first modern school-house 
for boys, the school was kept in two divisions, one for the little boys 
and another for those who were older ; sometimes together in one 
building and again separate at different places. During most of the 
time one of these divisions was domiciled in the stone house on Main 
Street. For a number of years the older boys had their school-room 
in the Brethren's House. For some years after the erection of the 
new church, the south-west room of that edifice was used as a 
school-room. At various times an evening school was kept during 
the winter months for boys who had to work at trades as regular 
apprentices, or at ordinary labor. Besides the common-school 
branches and regular religious instruction, music, both vocal and 
instrumental, always entered into the school plan, and there were at 
all times proficient instructors having boys in training to recruit 
the musical ranks in the service of the Congregation. Among those 
who served as teachers of bhe common branches and of music, from 
the close of the Revolution to the completion of the church — besides 
the chaplains of the Brethren's House and sundry of their assistants, 
w'hose names were given in the preceding chapter — were John Chris- 
tian Till, John George Weiss, Abraham Levering, John Caspar Frei- 
tag, Paul Weiss, and especially John Christopher Eilerts. During 
the first decade of the new century, Matthew Eggert and David Peter 
Schneller were conspicuous, both serving for a number of years, at 
intervals. In 181 1, appears the name of Benjamin Haven, the mis- 
sionary, and, in 1812, that of Adam Haman, who taught until 1815. 
In 1813, Samuel Reinke took charge of the first class, but after a 
few months had to resign on account of illness. The same year 
David Moritz Michael, an accomplished performer on the violin and 
other instruments, became the musical instructor of tlie b(?vs. The 



i8o7 1825. 603 

successor of Reinke was Jacob Rauschenberger, until September, 
1814, when he was called as minister to Gnadenhuetten, Ohio. Then 
John Beck, later the famous school-master of Lititz, Charles Joseph 
Levering, John Caspar Freitag, the former teacher, who at this 
time closed his discouraging labors as minister of the dying congre- 
gation at Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoning, and WiUiam Henry Van 
Vleck were all under discussion as teacher of the first class, the 
second being yet in charge of Haman. A temporary arrangement 
was made until, in January, 1816, Van Vleck was called to Bethle- 
hem as pastoral overseer of the single men and boys and secretary 
of the General Helpers' Conference. 

While Thomas Christian Lueders was the last superintendent of 
the Brethren's House, William Henry Van Vleck was the last of the 
succession of men who were appointed to the special pastoral care 
of the single men — BrucderpHeger — at Bethlehem. He took the boys' 
school in hand and again brought it up to a better standard. Now 
John Christian Till again appears upon the scene as a sc'hool-master, 
in addition to his duties as organist of the church, which he assumed 
in July, 1813, after the death of John Frederick Peter. He suc- 
ceeded Haman in 1815 in charge of the second class of boys. He 
also taught the evening school for a while. He dropped out of the 
corps of pedagogues in 1819, but remained organist until 1841, when 
he was succeeded bv Frnst F. Bleck — likewise famous both as 
organist and teacher — of whom there will be more to record. At 
the time when William Henry Van Vl^ck commenced his duties, 
Eilerts, the former proficient school-master, who was evidently fond 
of little children, was devoting his attention to a primary school. 
Van Vleck was called to duties elsewhere in August, 1817, but the 
boys' school did not again retrogade. 

A new impetus was given to educational activity in Bethlehem 
generally by the accession to the Elders' Conference of the village, 
in Februarv, 1816, of the scholarly and devoted new Principal of the 
Young Ladies' Seminary, the Rev. Henr}' Steinhauer. Although 
his career was brief, ending with his lamented death, July 22, 1818, 
the impress of his presence remained, extending beyond the par- 
ticular institution he had been called to direct. Another man, already 
mentioned, who joined the the corps of leaders at Bethlehem on Sep- 
tember 28, 181 7, devoted special attention to fostering the school 
work. This was the Rev. Charles Frederick Seidel, who was called 
from Nazareth to become the associate pastor and regular preacher 



604 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of Bethlehem. One of his duties, in this position, was the special 
oversight of the day-schools of the place. The death of Steinhauer 
also unexpectedly brought him into his first connection with the 
Young Ladies' Seminary as Principal, temporarily until 1819. 

In 1818 there were special deliberations by the Congregation 
Council on improving the boys' school. A special committee was 
appointed to secure the best possible teacher. Daniel Steinhauer, 
a man of superior attainments, who had come from England to visit 
his brother, the Principal, during his illness, was engaged tempo- 
rarily. In 1819, John Jacob Kummer removed to Bethlehem from 
North Carolina, and soon after his arrival, negotiations began with 
(him to take charge of the first class ; and thus another of the more 
prominent old-time school-masters of Bethlehem took a place in the 
succession. David Peter Schneller, a veteran in the service, was 
associated with him some time as teacher of the second class. 

Among the important steps forward in 1817, was that which 
brought a special School Board into existence. At a meeting of 
parents, masters and guardians, on November 11, 1817, to discuss 
measures for improving the boys' school, a committee of seven was 
appointed to thoroughly consider the subject and report. January 
21, 1818, a general meeting was held to hear the report, which went 
into the subject exhaustively under the three heads of general prin- 
ciples, financial resources, and management. It recommended the 
creation of a School Board of seven, the associate minister as general 
School Inspector, the Warden of the Congregation and the Prin- 
cipal of the Seminary to be ex-ofhcio members, and the other four to 
be elected by the voting members of the Congregation. The first 
election was held on March 10, 1818, and resulted in the choice of 
Samuel Luckenbach, John Frederick Ranch, Joseph Rice and Samuel 
Steup. Seidel became president and Ranch secretary of the board. 
The needed increase of revenue had been provided for by arranging 
with the Young Ladies' Seminary to let half of the former sum — 
£80 Pa. — agreed upon for accommodating the day-school for girls 
in that institution, and now considered rather high, go to the benefit 
of the boys' school, besides slightly increasing the tuition fees. Thus 
a needed additional amount of $200 was secured. The four mem- 
bers of the board chosen at the next election, March, 1819, were 
Charles David Bishop, John Frederick Ranch, Joseph Rice and 
Owen Rice, Jr. On October 18, 1819, a special winter evening school 
for apprentices and other boys who could only attend in the evening 



i8o7 1825. 605 

was commenced, eighteen young men having arranged to take turns 
as instructors in various branches. 

In 1821, tlie subject of building a suitable school-house for boys 
began to be discussed during the incumbency of John Frederick 
Rauch, Joseph Rice, Owen Rice, Jr., and Charles Schneller as the 
elected members of the board. In July, 1822, there were several 
joint meetings of the Elders' Conference, the Board of Supervisors 
and the Board of School Directors on further improving the school, 
which then consisted of upwards of thirty boys. A new teacher of 
the second class, Charles William Lilliencron, supposed to be a 
specially capable man, was chosen, but his term of service was brief, 
for in August, 1823, he left Bethlehem to return to Sweden, his 
native country. At the same time the building of the new school 
house was determined by a meeting of voting members in Congre- 
gation Council, on July 5, several members having expressed their 
willingness to advance the necessary money at four per cent, interest 
and, together with others, to make considerable contributions out- 
right. It was decided to build a two-story brick house, forty by 
thirty-three feet in dimensions, at an estimated cost of $1800 — this 
was exceeded somewhat — and to use the second story as a concert 
hall so long as it was not required for school purposes. Plans were 
drawn, a building committee consisting of Charles David Bishop, 
John Jacob Jundt and John Frederick Rauch was elected, and on 
July 26, 1822, it was commenced. It was completed soon after the 
following New Year and, on January 12, 1823, was dedicated with a 
brief service and a musical performance in the concert hall. This 
is the building on Cedar Street fronting south on the green, after 
1858 used for many years as a dweUing for the Superintendent of 
the Parochial School, and in 1890 remodeled to be used again for 
school purposes. When the school was re-organized in this new 
building, Jacob Kummer was teacher of the first class and David 
Peter Schneller, re-employed after Lilliencron left, had charge of the 
second class, while the religious instruction was in charge of the 
pastors, and special instructors in vocal and instrumental music were 
employed. 

To complete this cursory survey of the school situation at Beth- 
lehem up to the epoch associated with the completion and occupa- 
tion of the new school-house for boys, it may be added that the 
principalship of the Young Ladies' Seminary passed out of the hands 
of Seidel in 1819 into those of the Rev. John Frederick Frueauff, 



6o6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

who, in i82i,was succeeded temporarily by the Rev. Lewis David 
deSchweinitz until, in 1822, Seidel was appointed Principal again and 
filled the position until 1836. The women who taught in that insti- 
tution in 1823, when the new period of the boys' school opened with 
two regular teachers, were seventeen in number, including several 
who left in that year and others who entered. Some of them merely 
taught music and others fancy needle work, plain sewing, or other 
special things, and did not belong in the ranks of regular tutoresses ; 
yet the contrast between the two institutions was thus very great. 
The faculty of the Seminary corresponded in number rather to those 
of Nazareth Hall and the Bethlehem boys' school combined. 

The mention of two new names among the clergy and executive 
ofificials of Bethlehem, Frueaufif and de Schweinitz, leads back to 
the more general course of events after the closing of the Brethren's 
House. The financial difficulties of the time, together with the 
growing revolt against the prevailing regime which appeared openly 
in the complications of 1809, and could not again be suppressed, 
finally brought on the most acute crisis of the period emtjraced in this 
chapter. A proper connection of affairs leading to this crisis requires 
a reference to discussions prior to the closing out of the Brethren's 
House diacony. In September, 181 1, the General Board of Wardens 
in Europe, replying to a communication of the Elders' Conference 
of Bethlehem on the financial situation, decidedly favored the 
proposed sale of a thousand acres, or about one-fourth of the land 
which, in the settlements of 1771, the Bethlehem Diacony acquired 
from the previously existing General Diacony of the Unity. The 
title deeds were held, as explained in a previous chapter, by the 
so-called Proprietor in fee simple, but as a trust for the Bethlehem 
Congregation, although no formal declaration of trust was issued. 
The active business connected with all land thus held, was transacted 
by the so-called Administrator under power of attorney from the 
Proprietor. Hence it will be seen that, while the Bethlehem Congre- 
gation claimed, of course, to be the real owner of the land held for 
it by the nominal Proprietor, sales or conveyances of any kind had 
to be made by the Administrator, acting for the Proprietor. At the 
same time, in accordance with the diacony combine between all the 
congregations of the Unity, with the General Wardens in Europe 
standing financially at the head of the whole — the arrangement estab- 
lished in 1775 — such a proposed sale was subject to the approval of 
these General Wardens, whose agent at Bethlehem was the afore- 
said Administrator. 



i8o7 1825. 607 

That diacony combine involved reciprocal obligations between the 
whole and each of its parts ; hence between the Wardens of the 
Unity and the Bethlehem diacony, as well as each of the special 
choir diaconies. They were each under obligation to help the whole 
and the whole likewise to help each of them. It was under this 
arrangement that the European General Wardens of the whole 
were furnishing such considerable sums, from year to year, to help 
the diaconies at Bethlehem out of trouble, for which in the last 
instance thej^ would have to be responsible. Therefore, it was a 
natural and proper arrangement Ijhat such a proposed sale of Beth- 
lehem land should be subject to their concurrence; although, if the 
Bethlehem Congregation had chosen to break faith and take a revol- 
utionary step, and the Proprietor through the Administrator had 
been willing to co-operate in making the required deeds, the General 
Wardens could not have prevented such a sale, but would have 
been helpless, beyond legally pressing their claims against Bethlehem 
if they had chosen and found means available to do so. The only 
persons who could effectually thwart the will of the Bethlehem 
authorities in such a case were the Proprietor, Jacob Van Vleck, of 
Salem, N. C., and the Administrator, Cunow, or really, under his 
power of attorney, the latter alone. The object of the proposed 
sale of land, which the General Wardens approved, was to pay off 
all indebtedness at Bethlehem and stop the heavy drain for interest 
on loans. At the beginning of 1812, when the letter of approval from 
the Wardens of the Unity was first under consideration in a meeting 
of the General Conference of Helpers at Bethlehem, the uncovered 
liabilities of the Congregation were reported as amounting to 
$12,541.63^ and the debt on the church building was $37,105.8314- 
It was calculated that the sale of the thousand acres would extinguish 
this and put a balance into the treasury. Cunow, the Administrator, 
strongly opposed the project and induced his colleagues in the 
General Helpers' Conference to take an adverse position. 

It was argued that there was no necessity for such a step because 
the income of the Bethlehem diacony for the previous fiscal year 
had met current expenses and interest, with a prospect of improve- 
ment ; that the situation was not as bad as represented 'because the 
land assets were booked too low, had greatly increased in value and 
would at a proper valuation cover the apparent excess of liabilities 
together with the church debt; that it would be difficult to safely 
and at the same time profitably invest the money of those who held 



6o8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the notes of the Bethlehem warden, which would have to be redeemed 
if, by such a sale of land, the obhgations of the Bethlehem diacony, 
then serving as a sort of bank for many persons, were paid off — -the 
stocks of corporations being an insecure investment in those times 
of war. It was proposed to cover the apparent excess of liabilities 
by adding $3.10 per acre to the valuation of the Bethlehem land, 
which increase would yet leave it booked below its real value. The 
congregation authorities at Bethlehem declined to recede from their 
purpose, and controversy ensued. In January, 1813, Cunow declared 
his opposition more clearly and emphatically in a pro memoria, in 
which he set forth his conviction that such a sale of a large tract 
would violate the agreements of 1771 ; that, in any case, the concur- 
rence of the owner in law, the Proprietor, must be had through the 
Administrator and they could not be ordered to act against their 
will; that the Bethlehem Congregation — and on this point the subse- 
quent contention turned — really held the land only on perpetual 
lease and could not sell it; that the Bethlehem diacony only had a 
stipulated right to the revenues of the land, to meet its own neces- 
sities and its obligations to the Sustentation Diacony controlled by 
the General Helpers' Conference ; the surplus above this was at the 
disposal of the General Wardens of the Unity, according to a 
resolution of the General Synod. In the following April, he secured 
the endorsement of his colleagues in the General Helpers' Con- 
ference to a letter he had written to the General Wardens of the 
Unity, so presenting the matter as to persuade them to withdraw, for 
the time being, their concurrence in the proposd sale. This aroused 
much indignation in Bethlehem against him and those who supported 
him, and, together with other causes of irritation, produced a state 
of disaffection that was disturbing to the internal peace of the village. 
Although no steps were further attempted until 1815, contention 
increased and grew bitter. 

Circumstances attending the closing of the Brethren's House, and 
the position taken by Cunow that the situation must be controlled 
by repression through a stricter enforcement of regulations and 
exercise of discipline, aggravated things until at last an official and 
personal rupture took place between him and the Bethlehem officials. 
In September, 181 5, the question of 1811, in reference to selling land 
to clear off indebtedness was again agitated. Cunow had been 
mainly instrumental in bringing about the assumption of the 
liabilities of the Brethren's House bv the Bethlehem diaconv, and 



i8o7 1825. 609 

it was thought that, in view of this, he would cease to obstruct tlie 
measure. At that time the debts of the Congregation diacony 
amounted to $26,463.94, and those of the defunct Brethren's House 
diacony to $15,672.74, which made a burden of $42,136.68, that 
was being carried and drawing interest, besides the church-building 
debt. Some strongly objected to the large credit system that had 
been instituted both by the Bethlehem treasury and by the Susten- 
tation Diacony, while Cunow favored and fostered this kind of a 
banking arrangement by which loans were taken from individuals. 
The result of the renewed agitation was that Cunow went to Europe 
early in 1816, to personally present all the features involved in the 
situation, as he viewed them, to the Unity's Elders' Conference and 
particularly to urge his arguments on the question of selling land 
upon the Unity's Wardens in that board. Decided differences of 
opinion had now arisen between him and some of his colleagues in 
the Conference of Helpers, especially in the matter of enforcing the 
yet unaltered regulations of the old system in all details, which some 
of them, hke the Elders' Conference at Bethlehem, regarded as no 
longer possible. They had also broken away from him in his view 
that the Bethleihem land, as an inherited trust, could only be held 
on perpetual lease and could not be sold, a view in which he was 
not sustained by the General Wardens of the Unity after a second 
consideration of the whole subject. The Unity's Elders' Conference, 
after hearing his presentation of matters and considering a written 
statement sent by his colleagues, brought about an adjustment of 
differences for the time being, and took measures to institute more 
particular inquiry into the demoralization of discipline at Bethlehem 
set forth by Cunow, while the larger questions involved were left 
to be dealt with by the General Synod of the Church which, after the 
lapse of seventeen years, it was now proposed to convene. Cunow 
returned to Bethlehem and a truce was effected even with the boards 
of the Bethlehem Congregation, and in April, 1817, he was formally 
invited by the Elders' Conference and the Board of Supervisors to 
again attend their sessions and to again participate in conducting 
services, neither of which things he had done for a considerable time. 
Meanwhile the agitations at Bethlehem and the other church 
villages, extending over a wider range of subjects, were at last given 
opportunity to issue in some regular action in the direction of desired 
changes and reforms. February 16, 1817, a circular of the General 
Conference of Helpers convoking a Provincial Conference in June, 



6lO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

preparatory to a General Synod to be held at Herrnhut in 1818, was 
publicly read at Bethlehem. It was the first such convocation in ten 
years and the first since 1768 in which lay-deputies participated, and 
which in its organization and methods deserved to be called a Synod. 
It consisted of two sections, one representing the exclusive settle- 
ments of the Church — Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz — and the 
other representing the town and country congregations. The ses- 
sions of both were held at Bethlehem and were presided over by 
Bishop Charles Gotthold Reichel. He yet filled a position very try- 
ing under the circumstances, as President of the General Helpers' 
Conference and Head Pastor at Bethlehem, but was soon to vacate 
these offices and return to Europe. The section of the Synod which 
represented the church-villages consisted of twelve ministers as ex 
officio members, composing the Elders' Conferences of the several 
places, together with eight women of these Conferences also entitled 
to ex officio seats, and thirteen lay delegates elected by the voting 
membership. The delegates from Bethlehem were Christian Eggert, 
Sebastian Goundie, Joseph Oerter, John Frederick Ranch, Jacob 
Rice, Owen Rice, Jr., and John Christian Till. Goundie and the two 
Rices represented more particularly the desire for reform in business 
regulations and property conditions, and the two last named were 
from among the younger citizens of the place ; Owen Rice being at 
that time thirty and Jacob Rice only twenty-four years old. All of 
them were men who were au fait in all the important matters that 
■came under consideration, so far as the various interests of the vil- 
lage were concerned, and each of them was selected as a specialist 
in some department. The section representing the exclusive church 
villages began its sessions on June 9, continued until the 21st, 
adjourned to August 4 and finally finished its work on August 6. 
The other section, representing the city and country congregations, 
consisted of eighteen ministers and eleven delegates and held ses- 
sions from June 26 to 28. The former had fifty-five and the latter 
eleven sittings. 

Prior to the convening of this Conference or Synod, it was pro- 
posed by some of the leading laymen, not only at Bethlehem, but 
also at Nazareth and Lititz, to have preliminary meetings of voting 
communicant members to discuss and formulate points to be brought 
forward. The Conference of General Helpers would have quietly 
let this take its course, but Cunow interposed strenuous objections 
to the exercise of this liberty and constrained his colleagues to 
■express disfavor. As all sensible men appreciated the desirability of 



i8o7 1S25. 611 

preserving amicable relations just then, such formal meetings which 
would have accomplished much preparatory work and expedited 
business were not held. 

Among the vexed questions of the time, the official discussions 
that preceded the Synod reveal those which were most prominent. 
One was the modification of the use of the lot in connection with 
appointments to office and in routine government, and its total 
abolition in connection with finally deciding the question of proposed 
marriages in the church settlements. Another was legal incorpor- 
ation, advocated by some to enable the Church general and the 
Congregation or village to hold and convey real estate. The chief 
motive was not fear of dishonesty on the part of the Proprietor, who 
held the title in fee simple, but the desire to escape from further 
experience of arbitrary domination on the part of the Administrator. 
The wish was that the Congregation might be in a position to control 
its own property. A third was that of abolishing the so-called "Lease 
System" under which residents of the village could only hold posses- 
sion of real estate on ground rent. There was a strong desire on 
the part of many to own the ground on which their houses stood as 
well as the buildings. 

Related to this was a long-standing grievance at Bethlehem and 
Nazareth which it was decided to have removed if the Lease System 
were retained. This was the old "limitation clause" in the house 
leases which those at Lititz and Salem, as it seems, did not have 
attached. The leases contained a proviso to which the builder of a 
house agreed, that if he vacated either by voluntarily removing or 
by forfeiting his right to live in the place under the agreement which 
he had signed, and received a quit notice ; or if the heirs of a 
deceased house-owner were not members of the Church, and the 
Administrator, representing the owner of the ground, had to buy the 
house — as frequently happened — in order to keep control of the 
premises, and disagreement arose about the price, a valuation was 
to be put upon it by three disinterested men, but this valuation must 
not exceed a maximum sum named in the lease. This was the "lim- 
itation clause." It was designed originally to be a safeguard against 
collusion to extort an exorbitant sum, but was now regarded as 
very unjust to many owners of houses because the leases were old 
and the figure named did not nearly represent the value of the houses, 
as property was now rated. It was desired that this limitation clause 
should be omitted. 



6l2 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Another wish strongly expressed, especially by many who were 
engaged in business, was that the principle of the Church which 
restrained members from resorting to the civil courts in complica- 
tions with other members, to collect debts or get redress for injuries, 
might be modified. The Conference of General Helpers had to 
admit that the character and relations of citizens of the church-vil- 
lages were so far from the ideal pre-supposed by the old require- 
ment that only the church authorities be resorted to in such mat- 
ters, that the position was no longer tenable. It was acknowledged 
that these authorities could no longer adequately deal with offenders, 
for there were those who would not be amenable to moral suasion 
and some for whom the threat of expulsion had lost its former effect. 
It was admitted also that the laws framed and the courts instituted 
to protect the persons and property of people were a product of 
Christian civilization, and therefore the words of Scripture about 
brother going to law with brother, in the days when this meant an 
appeal by Christians to heathen magistrates, did not invariably apply. 

Another change desired by the great majority was that the regu- 
lations which restrained men, regardless of their personal convic- 
tions, from performing militia service at the call of the Government 
be abolished. This troublesome matter, which had occasioned so 
much hardship, odium and expense during the Revolution, had now 
come into some prominence again during the second war with Eng- 
land. So far as can be ascertained only one Moravian, Joseph Rose, 
among those who had joined militia companies, was called out into 
service — September 25 to December 24, 1814, in camp at Marcus 
Hook — but much irritation was occasioned by the effort to enforce 
the inhibition, because there were at this time far fewer at Bethlehem 
and Nazareth than in former times who had scruples in the matter, 
and far fewer who were disposed to pay money for themselves or 
others, in preference to merely turning out to drill. The question 
referred to the Unity's Elders' Conference whether a man could be 
held to necessarily forfeit membership if he voluntarily joined the 
militia, was answered in the negative. The General Helpers' Con- 
ference finally agreed that it was not prohibited by Scripture ; that 
they could not prevent a man from doing what the Government 
called upon him to do as a public service, and in reference to which 
the laws of Christianity gave him personal liberty ; that the old rule 
could no longer be strictly maintained. All agreed to this position 
excepting Cunow, who appealed to the letter of the synodlcal enact- 



i8o7 1825. 613 

ment not yet repealed, and urged that discipline be exercised upon 
all who transgressed. In December, 1814, the board received 
answers from the Elders' Conferences of the three church-villages to 
their question on this point. The answer from Bethlehem was : it 
is impossible to further continue the arrangement to combine in pay- 
ing for substitutes, and the question of drilling ought to be left to 
the option of the individual. That from Nazareth was : nothing can 
be done in the matter. The young men who are so inclined simply 
go to drill, rule or no rule, and flatly refuse to stand the expense of 
maintaining what they call an antiquated regulation that ought to be 
considered obsolete. From Lititz, where, as formerly, narrower con- 
servative views in such matters yet prevailed, and Benade, the sup- 
porter of Cunow in uncompromising adhesion to the old system, was 
at the head of affairs, came the opinion that militia service was con- 
trary to the fundamental principles of the Church and that the rule 
requiring the payment of fines instead of going to drill should be 
enforced. Nevertheless, the tendency to break away from it carried 
the day, relief from the regulation was afforded in 1818, by a revision 
of the synodical enactment on the subject, in response to the request 
of 1817, and then this ceased to be a trouble to the people. 

It may be added here that, beyond the renewed difficulties about 
the requirements of the militia law — but to a far less degree than 
during the Revolution — and the general financial and economic 
eft"ects which were experienced in the country generally, Bethlehem 
felt nothing of the War of 1812, but on February 22, 1815, engaged 
in a special celebration of Washington's birthday in view of the 
ratification of the Treaty of Ghent. There was a general illumina- 
tion of the town in the evening, during which two choirs of trom- 
bonists, one stationed at the open windows in the organ loft of the 
church and the other in front of Sebastian Goundie's house, alter- 
nated in performing festive chorales. On April 13, solemn services 
were held in observance of the Peace Jubilee proclaimed by the 
President. 

Turning back from this digression in connection with the final 
reference to the subject of militia service, two more prominent mat- 
ters are found figuring in the discussions of 1817. One was the 
desire to have the so-called monopolies in the various branches of 
trade and industry in the village abolished, or at least to have the 
regulations so relaxed that what was believed would be a legitimate 
and beneficial competition in business might become possible, and a 



6l4 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

larger measure of liberty which was believed to be a natural right 
ot the citizens in the matter of establishing trades might be enjoyed. 
What was originally intended to be a protection to those who leased 
one after another of the "Branchen" from the Congregation Diacony 
— regulating the number of trades so that each one might be assured 
a living by means of it, and adjusting the supply to the demand — had 
become, in the opinion of man}', a system of oppressive restriction. 
In some cases it was looked upon as a petty tyranny exercised by 
the village fathers. There were frequent jealousies and contentions 
and occasional charges of partiality, unfair discrimination, protec- 
tion of favorites, barring out those who happened not to stand in 
the good graces of the village authorities or to enjoy the prestige 
of influential connections. Young men were sometimes compelled, 
under the rigid arrangements, to betake themselves to an occupation 
not to their liking, in order to merely gain a livelihood, because there 
was declared to be a scarcity in that particular line and ample pro- 
vision in the other which they preferred, and there was no appeal 
from the decision. It not infrequently happened that a young man 
had served a full apprenticeship at a trade or had devoted some 
years to learning a certain business — perhaps almost under coercion 
and quite contrary to his inclinations, because just then apprentices 
happened to be needed in those particular places — which he was 
afterwards not permitted to follow except bj^ consenting to transfer 
his residence to another church settlement, where there was need of 
one to ply his particular trade, or by going out to hunt a location 
for himself. 

The contagion of progress and expansion was in the atmosphere. 
General activity in opening up new trade and trafific and starting all 
manner of internal improvements spread through the States after 
the second war with England. Some energetic and enterprising 
men of Bethlehem foresaw that the place had a future and even then 
believed that there was trade enough for several mercantile estab- 
lishments, room for another hotel, prospect of success in starting new 
manufacturing industries, warrant in laying foundations for larger 
operations generally than the village regulations then made possible 
or those in control who preferred to see all things remain in the 
narrow, beaten track, could contemplate with peace of mind. Hence 
the growing desire to have the church-village system so relaxed and 
modified that there might be freer action in business afTairs. 

Yet another feature of the existing system, one already referred 
to, was given special consideration, and the strongly-felt need of a 



i8o7 1825. 615 

reji:iedy for various hampering and even oppressive effects of it that 
had been experienced was put into formal propositions. This was 
the interlinl-ced organization of ofificial bodies under the close regwie 
of the previous three decades which created too much identity 
between the general executive body, the Genei-al Helpers' Confer- 
ence, on one hand, and the local village boards on the other, and 
gave too much opportunity for one little group of men or even one 
man like the Administrator to exercise a dominant influence in all 
of them. To a very great extent, as has been observed, interviews 
of the General Helpers' Conference with the Bethleliem Elders' 
Conference had been really but interviews with themselves. For 
some time merely the Wardens of the Congregation and the Breth- 
ren's House did not hold double ofificial positions. Therefore, when 
— as was often the case — only the Bethlehem contingent of the Gen- 
eral Board was in "session deliberating, and they wished to have an 
interview with the Bethlehem Elders' Conference, they merely had 
to call in the two wardens — and after 1814 only the one warden — in 
order to become a joint body, and could then have the interview 
with themselves as thus augmented. Some were beginning to regard 
it as oppressive and some looked upon it as almost grotesque to 
have Cunow as Administrator discuss with Cunow as a member of 
the General Helpers' Conference, then with Cunow as a member of 
the Bethlehem Elders' Conference and finally with Cunow as a mem- 
ber of the village Board of Supervision, whether the Bethlehem 
people might do something to which Cunow in all these capacities 
was opposed. Some were also beginning to think that when the 
President of the General Helpers' Conference had occasion to com- 
municate with the President of the Bethlehem Elders' Conference 
on points of controversy between the two boards, these Presidents 
ought to be two different men, especially when, as one and the same 
man. he was to so great an extent dominated at both ends by the 
Administrator. 

This desire for the re-construction of organization extended to 
three other features. One, purely local, was the constitution of the 
Gemeinrath or Common Council of the village, which, under the 
existing system, as was pointed out in the preceding chapter, con- 
sisted so largeh' of ex officio members and of certain predetermined 
classes of citizens and functionaries, for the time being, who held 
their places to a great extent by the choice and appointment of the 
Elders' Conference, that it was very much of a close corporation. 
The number in it whose membership expressed the free choice of 



6l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the people was next to nothing, and that many looked upon it as a 
"packed" body made up by the Elders' Conference is not surprising. 
That some refused to be comforted under their close grip by the 
extensive use of the lot in making choice from candidates is also not 
surprising, for there were many ways of controlling and restricting 
the foregoing election of candidates, and the regulations of the time 
even permitted the Elders' Conference to ignore a candidate occa- 
sionally in drawing names or settling the question yes or no, if to 
their minds there was sufficient reason for doing so. The movement 
at this time was in favor of not merely reducing the ex officio mem- 
bership of the Coimcil and the number of positions which, as such, 
were necessarily represented in it by their incumbents selected by 
the Elders' Conference, but to again have it consist of all the adult 
male population who were communicant members in good standing, 
as was the case under the more democratic organization of fifty years 
before. 

Another feature in which re-construction was advocated was the 
standing of the General Conference of Helpers administering the 
affairs of all the American settlements, congregations and missions, 
and its relation to the Unity's Elders' Conference in Europe. There 
was a strong desire to restore more authority and freedom of action 
to this board ; to give it more of the character of an Executive 
Board supervising the whole as an integral, organized body of work, 
instead of being only a conference of the agents, appointed in the 
three settlements by the U. E. C. to act for them in the care of these 
places as merely individual congregations, together with the few city 
and country congregations which yet existed. It was a move 
towards the creation of a proper Provincial organization with a Pro- 
vincial Executive Board and a Provincial Synod. Yet another 
feature^ that came under discussion lay even closer to the central and 
fundamental character of the whole system. It was desired that in 
the composition of the U. E. C. there might be provision for one 
member from America or at least one thoroughly conversant, through 
previous residence in the country, with the American situation ; and 
for giving the Elders' Conference of the American church settle- 
ments a vote in helping to fill vacancies in the general governing 
body in Europe. 

Numerous lesser matters at the same time received attention, and 
the opportunity was embraced to formally seek release from the 
obligation to conform to various antiquated requirements in ritual 
and church routine, some of which were utterlv foreign to the genius 



i8o7 1825. 617 

of the age and the country and were distasteful and burdensome to 
most people. A few such observances had, without formal abolition, 
become obsolete, while sticklers for punctilious conformity, among 
those in control, harassed the people by urging the letter of 
the regulations in all particulars and reproaching them with insubor- 
dination and unfaithfulness. One minor feature of the general 
struggle came to prominence in 1815, which was interesting and 
somewhat amusing. It showed how the martinet is more easily 
baffled by women than by men; how the stern regulator of customs 
is at his wits' end when he encounters rebellion in the domain of 
feminine attire ; how even Moravian women of nearly a century ago 
knew how to make short work of a matter by an application of what 
has been said to be the woman's way — to jump to a conclusion and 
then argue from the conclusion. For some time there had been a 
growing sentiment among the women" at Bethlehem, Nazareth, and 
even at Lititz, against the old regulation that required them to wear 
the uniform "Schiieppel Hauhe"^ to church, or on all formal or dress 
occasions, in the exclusive settlements — it was not obligatory in the 
city and country congregations — and here and there one ventured 
to discard it and don a more popular, conventional style of in-door 
head covering, in quite extensive use outside of Moravian circles in 
those days, distinguished from the other, in Moravian parlance, as 
the "Englische Haube." Quietly, plans for an open rebellion were 
formed, with Nazareth again the headquarters of venturesome pro- 
gress. Suddenly, in February, 1815, the General Helpers' Confer- 
ence received a message from the women at Nazareth that, while 
they intended to further respect the principle of uniform head-attire 
among high and low, rich and poor alike in the sanctuary, and the 
several colors worn with it distinguishing the choir divisions, they 
did not propose to longer wear the Schneppel Haube, but had agreed 
together and concluded to appear in church the following Sunda\' 
wearing the Englische Haube. They did not first ask the fathers 
whether they approved ; did not give them an opportunity to first 
examine the law, discuss the question, perhaps write to the Unity's 
Elders' Conference for counsel and then return answer. They simph' 



S Schneppel— Schneppchen, diminutive of Schneppe. nozzle, lip or peak, and Hmibe, cap. 
Schneppel-Haiihe or Miltze, a close 6tting cap with a peak in front. One variety of it seems 
to have been associated in former times — not among Moravians — with mourning attire. 
Some portraits in the archives at Bethlehem display the Schneppel- Haube of former times. 
Women in old Moravian settlements in Germany submit to a somewhat modernized form of 
it even yet. 



6l8 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

served notice on the Conference of what they had conckided to do. 
Here was a problem that embarrassed the fathers more than all the 
conflicts with Bethlehem business men. This gentle audacity took 
them by surprise. It was a coup de main that left them little else to do 
than to unconditionally surrender. They meekly asked the sisters 
who had official seats in the Elders' Conferences of the three church 
villages to ascertain for them the general sentiment and opinion 
among the women and kindly report. Those at Bethlehem, speak- 
ing for all, reported at a sitting in March, and very likely with a 
twinkle in their eyes, that the sentiment against the Schneppel Haube 
was very general ; that many had already adopted the change at all 
of the places on all occasions excepting in church, and that the move- 
ment would evidently prevail. Thereupon it was recorded that inas- 
much as many had introduced this change without consulting the 
several Elders' Conferences, the General Helpers' Conference did 
not see what it could do in the matter, but the Elders' Conferences 
were to be urged to seriously consider how the growing spirit of 
insubordination might best be coped with. Thus came the gradual 
discarding of the Schneppel Haube and the adoption of the Englische 
Haubc as a transition to finally wearing what each one pleased. 

Meetings of the voting members were held at Bethlehem, August 
22 and 23, to settle the question of representation at the approaching 
General Synod. Under the arrangement then yet existing, there was 
no election of deputies of the churches jointly as a Province of the 
Unit}^ by the Synod, but representatives were chosen by the several 
church-settlements as such. It was decided on the 22nd, that Bishop 
Reichel, who was going to Europe to remain, and Cunow, who had 
to attend the Synod anyhow, might be two of the Bethlehem depu- 
ties. Then a third should be elected representing the laity and the 
parties most sharply at issue with the Administrator. This election, 
which took place on the 23d, resulted in the choice of Owen Rice, 
Jr. February 15, 1818, the credentials furnished the deputies were 
publicly read in the church and delivered to them in the presence of 
the congregation. March 5, they started on their journey to Europe 
— Bishop Reichel and his wife, Cunow and his wife, and Owen Rice. 
The important General Synod was in session from the beginning of 
June to the end of August. On December 6, Cunow and his wife 
and Owen Rice got back to Bethlehem. Five days later came the 
Rev. Lewis David deSchweinitz, who had attended from North Caro- 
lina. With him came Bishop Christian Gottlieb Hueffel to succeed 
Bishop Reichel as President of the Executive Board, but not as 



i8o7 1825. 619 

Head Pastor at Bethlehem. Herein one of the desired changes 
alread}' appeared. These two positions were no more to be filled 
by the same man unless some emergency made it unavoidable. The 
board over which he came to preside was now no longer to bear the 
lengthy, unwieldy, although ingeniously thought-out title: "Confer- 
ence of Helpers in General of the Congregations and Stations in 
Pennsylvania and the adjacent Parts," which in these pages has been 
abridged into General Helpers' Conference — it was constructed to 
accord with the rationale of the close regime which suppressed the 
idea of a Provincial body with an official head — but was to be called 
the Pennsylvania Province Helpers' Conference and was to have 
more character as a central body, differentiated somewhat more from 
the local boards of Bethlehem. For convenience it will henceforth 
be called the Provincial Board. It was to consist of five members : 
the Presiding Bishop appointed by the Unity's Elders' Conference ; 
the Administrator, also, of course, an appointee of that body, and 
the Head Pastors — Gcmciiihclfcr — of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz. 
The Administrator was not to be necessarily a member of the two 
Bethlehem boards, although this was not forbidden if circumstances 
rendered it imavoidable. It was also decided that the Principal of 
the Seminary for Young Ladies should devote himself more entirelv 
to his particular work, as a rule, and, when possible, another man 
should fill the position of associate minister and preacher. 

New statutes for the exclusive church settlements in Pennsylvania, 
formulated by the Preparatory Synod in 1817, submitted to the Gen- 
eral Synod, amended in some particulars and then enacted b}^ that 
body, together with a new code of detailed instructions for the gov- 
erning boards of these villages, were made operative in January, 
1819. On the 28th of that month all of the revisions and re-con- 
structions authorized by the Synod were publicly communicated and 
the new statutes were adopted and signed at Bethlehem. Not all 
that was desired was gained, but the reforms were sufficient to arrest 
the growing disaffection, prevent revolutionary measures and make 
it possible to continue the exclusive church-village plan a number 
of 3'ears longer. The most objectionable uses of the lot, sufficiently 
treated of in the preceding pages were abolished and the Gemcinrath or 
Common Council now again consisted of all male communicants of 
the village, of voting age and in good standing. Various hampering 
restrictions long objected to, and methods of procedure that had 
caused irritation were set aside, and the way to the introduction of 



620 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

some desirable external improvements was opened by the revised 
instructions adopted for the village boards to work under. 

The Rev. John Frederick Frueauff was installed as Head Pastor 
for the time being, while the Rev. C. F. Seidel continued to fill the 
position of associate minister and regular preacher. The position up 
to this time occupied by the Rev. Christian Frederick Schaaf in the 
pastoral corps, as special spiritual overseer of the choir of married 
people, ceased to be a separate one. It was added to the functions 
of the Head Pastor. Schaaf left for Salem, N. C, in April, 1819, 
after more than twenty years of labor at Bethlehem, the longest 
continuous term of service among Moravian ministers of the place. 
Besides his particular function, as stated, he had been variously 
useful, in connection with the church music, the management of 
the book depository, the publication of a new hymn book and in 
keeping records for the Elders' Conference and for the General 
Board. He had also filled the position of Head Pastor at one 
interval and served as a member of the General Board. He repre- 
sented eminently the old regime and the paternal idea of government, 
but not in their harsh, forbidding features like some other men. It 
was in a kind and fatherly way that he thought he must do his full 
duty by supervising every man's household and having a hand in 
the management of all domestic matters. He was a friend of the 
children and there are people yet living who remember good "Pappy 
Schaaf," as he was affectionately called at Salem in the later years 
of his life, who always had with him a "mint cake," or other tempting 
thing to bestow upon the little boy or girl who could promptly give 
him the answer to a catechism question or correctly repeat for him 
a verse from the hymn book. 

During the last years of his service at Bethlehem he was actively 
associated, as one of the leaders, with several features of church 
routine and with new movements which were among the brighter 
things of the time. He took much pains to help foster singing among 
the children and to render their participation in various services 
attractive. On September 7, 1814, the first reference occurs in the 
records, after the building of the new church, to the children entering 
at the close of morning prayer to greet the parents by singing 
benisons on the morning of their covenant festival, as had long been 
the practice in the old place of worship. At that time they quietly 
entered at the east end of the church, slipped up the stairs and 
suddenly appeared in the corner galleries on either side of the pulpit, 
the boys on the north and the girls on the south side. In those days 



iiSo/ 1825. 621 

the beautiful outdoor close of evening prayer on the festival days 
ot the children — before 1818, the little boys on June 24, and the little 
girls on August 17, and after that year combined on the last named 
date — took place at the west end of the church where the children 
assembled on the terrace, while the choir and orchestra were stationed 
at the open windows at the rear of the organ and the trombonists in 
the center. This arrangement continued for about seventy years 
after the church was built. 

Another of the conspicuous occasions for which the children were 
particularly trained to sing in public was the general Congregation 
Festival or anniversary. This occasion, which began to be observed 
in 1762, to commemorate the organization of Bethlehem completed 
June 25, 1742, and was more distinctly and formally established 
as a feature of the annual routine in 1781, during the sojourn of 
Bishop John Frederick Reichel at Bethlehem, was called the Geniein- 
fesf, or Congregation Festival, because it was a general festival for 
the entire congregation and not for any particular choir division of 
the membership, or an occasion of a memorial character for the 
communicant membership exclusively, like the services associated 
with August 13, and November 13. The observance of such a general 
Congregation Festival on the anniversary of the founding of the 
settlement, organization of the congregation, first communion 
occasion or consecration of the church has always been a prominent 
custom of Moravian congregations everywhere. The General Synod 
of 1818, among other measures intended to foster more historic 
churchly consciousness, made the attempt to have the significant 
date. May 12 — "der Mdhrische Kirchentag," the Moravian Church-Day 
— uniformly adopted by all as the day of the Congregation Festival, 
in view of corner-stone laying and arrival of the "Moravian 
Churchmen" at Herrnhut in 1724, the first distinct organization 
under the statutes of 1727, and the Anglican recognition of 1749, all 
associated with this date. This movement, although May 12 deserves 
far more notice by Moravian Churches as a memorial day than it 
receives, did not prove to be popular, for it deprived the occasion 
of its local anniversary character in each particular congregation. 
The change was made at Bethlehem, but in 1826 the festival was 
restored to the 25th of June, the experiment, like in other congre- 
gations, not proving satisfactory, as was reported to the next 
General Synod in 1825. Since then its character as a purely local 
Anniversarv Festival, commemorating the organization, has been 
more distinctly recognized as its specific meaning. 



622 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

In those da_vs of much musical culture in Bethlehem, the greatest 
of all children's services, that of Christmas Eve, was naturally the 
most conspicuous in this particular and was iisually preceded by 
some weeks of practice at which Brother Schaaf was commonly 
present to lead the singing with his violin, as in former years Father 
Grube had so often done, and to encourage the children to do their 
best. 

Schaaf was, moreover, one of those at Bethlehem who caught the 
spirit of the years which followed the war of 1812, in the domain of 
religious effort — for it was not only in trade and traffic that new 
energies were stirred, but also in evangelization, particularly in 
special efforts to inculcate scriptural knowledge among old and 
young. It was the period in which mainly the movements started 
that took shape in such final great organizations as the American 
Bible Society — that of Philadelphia, now the Pennsylvania Bible 
Society, having existed since 1808 — the Amerian Sunday-School 
Union, the American Tract Society, and the American Home Mission 
Society. The Sunday-school movement of that time particularly 
interested men like Schaaf, and it was chiefly through his efforts 
and those of Mary Allen, one of the leading women of her time at 
Bethlehem, in culture and piety, and particularly in efforts for the 
benefit of the young, that the first Sunday-school was commenced at 
Bethlehem in 1816. Its purpose and methods were those which had 
been adopted a quarter of a century before by Robert Raikes at 
Gloucester, England, had become very popular in that country and 
at this time were becoming so in some parts of the United States. 
Both in New York and Philadelphia they were enlisting the interest 
of many in the Unions that were elaborating extensive plans of organ- 
ized effort. While the name Sunday-school adopted in English 
speaking Chistendom and the popular interest in the work were 
comparatively new, the idea and the methods were far from being 
so. It belongs to that kind of movements which cannot be said to 
have had their distinct beginning anywhere or at any exact time, or 
to have been originated by any particular person ; that kind of 
undertakings which have often been thought of and started by differ- 
ent persons at different places. The Sunday-school work of modern 
times is commonly traced back to the efforts of Raikes, because the 
movement started by him, rode forward on a popular tide, in some 
churches carried the interest of clergy and people with it, attracted 
wide attention as meeting a need of the time, spread, became general 
and attained organized permanence. Wherever the English language 



i8o7 1825. 623 

and English associations and traditions prevailed, people naturally 
viewed this rapidly growing new branch of Christian activity as the 
outcome of what Raikes commenced ; learned to associate his name 
with it as founder, and in course of time became accustomed to speak 
of him as the father of Sunday-schools ; generally assuming that such 
a thing never existed and such an idea never was thought of before 
his day; for comparatively few persons have the inclination or take 
the trouble to historically investigate. The Sunday-schools that 
existed in England and America before that time, although num- 
erous, were sporadic, did not constitute the starting-point of great 
popular and permanent activities, were not epoch-making, have to 
be hunted for in the by-ways of history and are therefore not known 
by the most of people to have existed. 

The similar work in Germany and Holland is usually not taken 
into account simply because it did not bear the English name 
Sunday-school. In Pennsylvania there had been many Sunday- 
schools in colonial days, some in Lutheran and Reformed country 
churches, others started by Quakers,^ Mennonites and Tunkers, and 
by the Sabbatarian Brethren, at Ephrata. All were conducted with 
the idea of giving instruction in reading, moral training and discipline 
and particularlv information out of the Bible and on the essentials of 
Christianity to children who were neglected or in various ways were 
prevented from enjoying either the privileges of secular schools or 
the benefits of provisions made by such churches as then existed for 
the special religious nurture of the children. The last named object 
was one to which, in those days, far more attention was paid among 
the German population than among the masses of English speaking 
people. 

As for the Moravians, the general idea and, in the main, even the 
methods of Robert Raikes were as exactly like those of much of 
their early located and itinerant work among neglected children in 
Pennsylvania as such efforts, at different times and places and by 
different people under varying circumstances, could possibly be. In 
connection with the modern era of spreading interest in such efforts 
under the name Sunday-school, such work had been commenced in 
several of their city congregations prior to 1816. When the work at 
Bethlehem was started, it was not because there was thought to be a 
need of it in the Congregation. The ample, thorough and systematic 
provisions for the nurture and training of the children that existed in 
the Moravian villages of those days were among their foremost char- 
acteristics. This indeed accounts for the fact that the Sundav-school 



624 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in its modern character did not rise to importance in the Moravian 
Church at Bethlehem, as a department of its internal work until 
many years later when it very gradually attained its place in conse- 
quence of the decay of older arrangements and methods. The 
Sunday-school of 1816, was opened for the benefit of children about 
the neighborhood and of apprentices and girls in sei'vice who had 
not been brought up at Bethlehem and whose opportunities for 
acquiring both secular and religious education had been meagre. 
While many children in the vicinity were in a sadly neglected 
condition, it would be an injustice to some respectable Christian 
families to suppose that all who were among the scholars in those 
years came from careless and irreligious homes. Boys and girls 
gathered from considerable distances, some of them encouraged to 
attend by Christian parents who gladly embraced the opportunity, in 
view of the very crude character of the few country day-schools and 
the insufficient provision for religious instruction in their neigh- 
borhoods. The exact date at which "Sister Polly Allen," as Mary 
Allen was familiarly called, commenced her Httle Sunday-school for 
girls in the spring of 1816, cannot be ascertained. She quietly gath- 
ered a few children together who lived near Bethlehem in the present 
Hanover Township, taught some the alphabet, others to spell and 
yet others to read ; taught them hymns, told tlie;m Bible stories, 
had them sing together — Brother Schaaf helping her in leading the 
singing — and then gave them a light repast before they returned 
home. Their first place of meeting was the former dining-room 
under the Old Chapel. Probably the last member of that Sunday- 
school, the aged widow Sarah Yerkes, of South Bethlehem, died in 
1896. At an evening service on July 28, 1816, Shaaf made this 
matter the subject of a discourse in which he referred to the general 
activity of the time, both in England and America, in the spread of 
God's Word among adults and children, and particularly to the 
Sunday-school movement, and drew attention to the duty Bethlehem 
owed its surroundings in this respect. He then stated that a few 
men and women of the Congregation felt moved to open a Sunday- 
school for children of the neighborhood, to be held from one to 
three o'clock, drew attention to the boys and girls in service at 
Bethlehem, who should also have the benefit of it and asked for the 
prayerful interest of the people and for contributions to a fund 
for the purchase of books." 

6 A subscription list in his hand-writing is yet in existence containing the names of contri- 
butors from July 29, 1816, to September 22, 1818. They are mostly women. The first on 



i8o7 1825. 625 

The most active among those interested in the boys' department 
was WilHam Henry Van V'leclv, then lilhng his tirst appointment 
at Bethlehem, already referred to, as superintendent of the young 
men and older boys of the Congregation. The formal opening of the 
school under ofiticial auspices took place in the church on August 4, 
1816, when thirteen boys and twenty-five girls from the neighborhood 
gathered as the nucleus, and a number of Bethlehem people were 
present. Bishop Reichel opened the exercises with an address and 
prayer. Then the scholars repaired to the places where the schools 
were to be held; the boys in the up-stairs room of the church, the 
present archive-room, and the girls in the Old Chapel; Van Vleck in 
charge of the former and Mary Allen of the latter. Thus began 
Sunday-school work in Bethlehem. One of the boys who attended 
that school was the long and widely-known Lutheran pastor, Joshua 
Jaeger, whose father ministered at Schoenersville. He made this 
interesting statement himself when he preached, the first time, in the 
Moravian Church in Bethlehem on December 9, 1849, during the 
pastorate of Bishop William Henry Van Vleck, who at the beginning 
was superintendent of the school. The Rev. C. F. Seidel took a 
warm interest in the work when he removed to Bethlehem in 1817, 
and energetically fostered every efifort to revive Christian activity 
among the people. Several tangible evidences of this appear in the 
records of the years from 1817 to 1825, which deserve to be referred 
to in this connection. 

One, looking to the cultivation of more substantial interest in the 
missions of the Church, was the organization of the Women's Mis- 
sionary Society on March 8, 1818. More than fifty women met on 
that occasion and, after an opening service at which Seidel officiated, 
they organized by adopting a few simple regulations, fixing the 
membership fee at one cent a week, electing six collectors who were 
to report quarter-yearly and who with Seidel as President then con- 
stituted the Board of Managers. The Society was called at first the 

the list is the daughter of Bishop Ettwein. Her name is written Benigna Ettwein, Sr., to 
distinguisli her from his grand-daughter Benigna about whose odd sayings and doings so 
many reminiscences, stories with variations and fictions, have been current among Bethlehem 
traditions. The largest contributions were from Mary Allen. On the back of the paper two 
disbursements are noted; one, June 10, 1817, to Conrad Zentler, printer, of Philadelphia, 
for printing "An Address to Parents" (German) on sending their children to Sunday-school; 
another September 20, 181S, for German tracts. Copies of the "Ansprac/ie an EUern in 
Bezug auf Sonntags-Schiilen^' are preserved in the archives. The issue of such an appeal 
was decided upon by the Elders' Conference in May, 1816. 
41 



626 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

"Society of Sisters and Friends in Bethlehem in Aid of the Missions 
of the United Brethren." Its name was later the Female Auxiliary 
Missionary Society in Aid, &c., then for many years simply the 
"Female Missionary Society," and eventually the "Women's Mission- 
ary Society." Its organization was subsequently elaborated some- 
what. It has had an unbroken existence, is yet pursuing its good 
work and is probably the oldest such organization at present in 
existence among women in the United States. It is of interest to 
record that one of its earliest undertakings was to put into print, for 
the use of the missions, the Delaware Indian translation of Lieber- 
kuehns's Harmony of the Gospels, completed in 1806 by the venerable 
missionary, David Zeisberger who, after sixty-three years' labor 
among the Indians, had entered into rest in the eighty-eighth year of 
his age at Goshen, Ohio, on November 17, 1808. It was published 
in New York in 1821. The famous missionary and Indian scholar, 
John Heckewelder, then living in retirement at Bethlehem, prepared 
the copy for the press at the request of the Women's Society. Elias 
Boudinot, the first President of the American Bible Society, was 
greatly interested in the enterprise and was of much assistance in 
securing the necessary financial aid. 

The interest of the Women's Missionary Society in this particular 
undertaking was perhaps stimulated by the attention that was 
aroused at Bethlehem in those years by another organization for the 
general cause of Bible distribution, of which Seidel for a few years 
was the foremost Moravian promoter. A Bible Society had come 
into existence in the county in 1819, auxiliary to the Philadelphia 
Society of 1808, now the Pennsylvania Bible Society. At a meeting 
held in the Court House at Easton, with Samuel Sitgreaves as Presi- 
dent and Joseph Burke as Secretary, on November 8,1819, the "Bible 
Society of Northampton County, auxiliary to the Society in Phila- 
delphia," was formed by the adoption of twelve articles of consti- 
tution. Its first President was William Kennedy and its first Secretary 
was Samuel Sitgreaves. The annual dues were fixed at one dollar, 
all the clergy of the county were constituted ex officio directors, and 
provision was made for the formation of auxiliaries in the county. 
Such a branch organization for which a printed constitution of nine 
articles was prepared b)' the Board of Managers and distributed in 
April, 1820, was to be called a "Bible Association Auxiliary to the 
Bible Society of Northampton County." An auxiliary was formed by 
women, at Easton, on March 3, 1820, with S. C. P. Bishop as President 
and Susan Sitgreaves as Secretary. The only other auxiliaries known 



i8o7 1825. 627 

to have been formed in the county were at Bethlehem and Nazareth. 
Here, however, there was not a regular organization with officers but 
merely an association of stated contributors entitled to a certain num- 
ber of Bibles for free distribution in return for their contributions. 
This was in response to an appeal from Secretary Sitgreaves, April 12, 

1820. The second annual report of the Board of Managers, April 3, 

1821, contains the statement that, whereas at the time of the first 
annual report, April 4, 1820, there were only fifty-four annual sub- 
scribers, the number had been increased by twenty-five, and adds 
the following: "It is but justice to say that this important addition 
to the funds has been chiefly received from the Moravian settlements 
of Bethlehem and Nazareth, whose clergy gave immediate attention 
to the call made by your Board upon the Christian benevolence of 
the County in their circular of the last spring; and by their zeal and 
exertions have not only aided our funds, but promoted also the 
objects of our institution in opening a door for the dispensation of 
many volumes of the Book of God. But whilst the Board would 
make honorable mention of the endeavors of the Moravian Brethren 
in aid of the common cause of Christians, and cheerfully acknowledge 
the zeal of a few other individuals in the same cause ; it is with regret 
that they have to report that similar attention has not been given 
to their circulars in other districts of the county ; that they have not 
heard of other subscriptions made or associations formed, or 
collections taken in behalf of the most important and disinterested 
of all charities." This report of 1821, states that $110 had been 
sent to the Parent Society at Philadelphia.' 

The better spirit of those times manifested itself also in a more 
unconstrained cultivation of cordial relations with pastors and people 

7 How long the nominal county organization lasted the writer has not ascertained. Its 
denominational complexion was principally Episcopalian and Moravian, the active members 
at Easton being mainly connected with the parish of Trinity Church. Some years later the 
associations there and at Bethlehem seem to have corresponded, each for itself, with the 
treasurer and secretary of the Parent Society. In May, 1828, the Rev. John A. Hicks 
rector of Trinity Church, Easton, in behalf of the County Society, called upon pastors there 
and at Bethlehem to preach special sermons in behalf of the Bible cause. A special effort 
was then being made by the Philadelphia society to have each county canvassed and all 
who were destitute of the Scriptures provided in three years. Three-year subscribers were 
solicited. A subscription-list in response to this special appeal with an introduction bv 
Seidel, dated January 5, 1828, has the names of 94 Bethlehem subscribers for 1828-1830. 
A letter of Robert Ralston, treasurer. May 7, 1S2S, acknowledges ;51l4l.5o as the first in- 
stallment. 



628 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

of Other religious bodies in tiae surrounding region. The Bethlehem 
clergy frequently participated, with the musicians of the place, in 
church dedications, harvest-home festivals and the like, preached 
in churches and school-houses, where it was desired or seemed to be 
needed and occasionally exchanged pulpits with ministers of other 
denominations at Easton, Allentovvn and different points about the 
country. In this kind of activity the Rev. Wm. Henry Van Vleck, 
until he left in August, 1817, and then the Rev. C. F. Seidel were 
more conspicuously engaged than any others. Such church dedica- 
tions referred to were one, on September 22, 1816, in Springfield 
Township, Bucks County, ten miles from Bethlehem, and "a union 
church in Saucon Township, four miles from Bethlehem," on May 
26, 1817, in both of which Van Vleck participated. One more par- 
ticularly noted was that of the Schoenersville Church, December 25- 
26, 1819. Seidel had preached at the laying of the corner-stone on 
Ascension Day, May 20, when Pastor Conrad Jaeger, Pastor Becker 
and the Presbyterian Pastor Russell all took part. About three 
thousand people, says the record, were present. A panic was caused 
by the collapse of the platform, but no one was seriously injured. 
When the church was consecrated, Seidel again preached, together 
with Pastor Pomp of Easton, besides those before mentioned, and 
the Bethlehem musicians rendered service. When the "Jerusalem 
Church, nine miles from Bethlehem," was consecrated on May 22, 
1820, Seidel preached one of the sermons. Pastor Pomp performed 
the dedicatory act and the musicians of Bethlehem participated. On 
Whitsunday, June 10, 1821, Seidel preached at an organ dedication 
in "Christ Church, four miles from Bethlehem," and the next day he 
and the musicians participated in another church consecration, "four- 
teen miles from Bethlehem" — the record does not state in what 
neighborhood. It was to have taken place the previous November, 
but for reasons not stated had to be postponed. On that occasion 
Lutheran, Reformed, Moravian, Mennonite and Schwenkfeldian 
ministers participated. ' Possibly some reader may identify one and 
another of these indefinitely mentioned churches and find some dates 
or other particulars in these pages that will supplement other incom- 
plete records. The ministers of the neighborhood who preached in' 
Bethlehem during those years were principally pastors Brobst, 
Conrad Jaeger, Becker, Hecht, Pomp and Strasburger. Other 
clergymen mentioned were, in September, 1818, the Rev. Mr. Fe'ltus, 
rector of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, 
who preached in Bethlehem, and Bishop White, of Philadelphia, who,. 




BETHLEHEM 
1830 
1848 



i807 1825. 629 

on November 27, 1820, came from Easton, where he had consecrated 
the new church and ordained and installed the Rev. Mr. Rodne3\ 
He was the guest of Bishop Hueffel, who escorted him through the 
Young Ladies' Seminar}- and entertained him with music on the 
organ. 

Among other visitors to Bethlehem during those years, three 
of some celebrity may be mentioned. One was the Portugese 
minister, Joseph Correa de Serra, on June 20, 1818, with Peter 
Stephen Duponceau, Corresponding Secretary of the Historical and 
Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society. They 
came particularly to visit John Heckewelder, whose "Account of the 
History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who once 
inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States," published under 
the auspices of that Society, mainly at the instance of Duponceau, 
was then going through the press. Heckewelder — next to Zeisberger 
the most prominently associated with that domain of Moravian 
activity — departed this life at Bethlehem on January 31, 1823. The 
text of Seidel's discourse at his funeral on the 2nd of February — 2 
Tim. 4:7-8 — was by request, again used by him at the funeral of Gen- 
eral Robert Brown, on the 28th of the same month, when he and the 
Rev. Lewis David de Schweinitz participated in the obsequies, and a 
procession of a hundred and seven sleighs followed the remains to the 
cemeterv. The second notable visitor to be mentioned was Joseph 
Bonaparte, August 22, 1821. The record states that soon after his 
arrival he received word of the death of his brother, the great Napol- 
eon, seemed greatly affected and left immediately for his home at 
Bordentown, New Jersey, saying that he would visit Bethlehem some 
other time. The third was Bernhard, Duke of Saxe Weimar, on 
September 18, 1825. A special concert was given in his honor. He 
came again on the 7th of the following June, shortly before he left 
the country. 

During the vears surveyed in this chapter, various changes and 
improvements of an external character took place at Bethlehem, in 
the midst of the general struggle for freedom from the trammels 
with which some sought to hold everything stationary and keep 
energies in suppression. Some of the changes were dictated by 
official policy, under stress of financial necessity; others were the 
result of restless agitation that had to be yielded to. In 1812. the 
old farm associations disappeared from Main Street, for then the 
frequently-mentioned farm house, on what is now the site of Rauch's 
confectionerv, was converted to the purposes of residence and trade, 



630 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

and new farm buildings were erected east of the village, just south 
of the present Market Street and east of High Street. Michael 
Hinkle, the tenant — at whose funeral Seidel officiated, September 10, 
1825 — was followed, as farmer, for some years by his son-in-law John 
Roth. The last occupant of the premises and last of the succession 
of Bethlehem farmers seems to have been Lewis Benner, when, 
nearly forty years after the erection of those new farm buildings, that 
quarter was laid out in town lots. The old Sun Inn changed hands 
several times, was enlarged and greatly altered in appearance by the 
removal of the mansard roof, the addition of a third story and the 
covering of the outside walls with plaster, after the German manner 
of treating stone buildings, which in those days must needs be fol- 




Great JSTortJiern Line of Stages, 



lowed in Bethlehem. Some, in modern times, much regret this, as 
in the case of the church, while they rejoice that the diaconies of the 
Sisters' House and the Widows' House were too poor to thus 
"improve" their buildings, and that therefore they now stand unplas- 
tered. Those alterations at the inn were made during the incum- 
bency of Jacob Wolle, who took charge of it in 1816, following 
Joseph Rice, 1811-1816, the successor of Christian Gottlob Paulus. 
Inn-keeper Wolle was followed, after eleven years of service as host, 
by Matthew Crist, the last who conducted it at a salary for the Con- 
gregation Diacony, it being leased to tenants after 1830. 

During the years from the retirement of Paulus to the close of 
Wolle's administration, certain characters are associated with the old 
inn as habitues who in their several spheres and functions have been 
given perhaps more notoriety by some writers than they deserved — 
certainly more than they would receive in modern times when 



i8o7 1825. 631 



THE MAIL STAGE, 

From Philadelphia for Bethlehem, Northampiton, Ha- 
zareth, Wilkesbaire, Montrose, Owego, Geneva, Itha- 
ca, Canadaigua, Buffalo©, and Niagara, 

Three times a week. 

Willstart.fi-oniMr. Geo/^e Tokens Hotel. Sip of General Washingfeff 
NOi 6,SK)rth 4th street, and JWr. Daniel Lebo's White Swan Jnn, No- i06. 
Race stieet, Philadelphia, every Sunday, Tuesday ^ind Thursday, at 4, A. 
Mrami prgceed.by the following routes, tlirough Germantown, Flouerto^vn, 
Wiiitemarsh, Montgomery sqare, Quakertown & Ferysburg, and arrive at 
Betiilehem at 5 p. m. leave Betldeheyn the nest morning, & arrive at WUkes- 
barre in the evening, leave iVilkesbarre the sucqeediag day at 4, a. m. 
and arrive by 7, p. m. at Owego, axiA in the same manner continue through 
the whole route. Persons desiring to go to Bi^ffaloBttht Falls of JVTiag'ara 
or Canada, can by . this line perform the journey in five days, and lodge ev- 
ery night at the first-rate houses. Returning 

THE GMEAT JVORTHER;!^ STAGES, 

Via Buffaloe, &c, will arrive at their offices in Philadelphia every Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday, by 5, p. ji. 

BERWICK. 

The Stage for Berwick, will leave Bethlehem every Friday morning, and 
arrive at Berwick the next day, at 2 p. m. leave Berwick on Tuesday, anu 
arrive at Bethlehem, on Wednesday, at 1 p. m. There is likewise a fine of 
Stages from Bethlehem to A^ew I'ork, Reading, Lancait&r and Eagton. 

Persons whose wish it is to visit the Mineral Springs at 8chooley^s 
Mountain, are informed that this is the best route, and that they can be ac- 
commodated at Bethlehem on reasonable terms. 

The Proprietors i-espectfully inform the public, that they hs7€ good horses 
and Stag s, throughout this extensive line — the drivera,sober, experienced 
and ohllgi 'g- ': ^dirterent Stage-houses are noted Inns^ -and nodeiste in 
+hei]f char, * 

la order ta conform to the times, the proprietors have 

Reduced the Fare 

To Bethlehem, only Three Dollars, 
Trom Bethlehem to Wilkesb&rre, Four DollafSf 

And so proportioned throughout the whole route — Baggage at the iJSone <Jf 
the owner. Way Passengers 6 cents per mile. 

The proprietorB cannot but flatter themselves from the superior accommo- 
dations, that the above inducements will insure the continuance (tf the 
public favor. 

Tho Bethlehem ^- Philadelphia > 
Stage Proprietars, k 

Ajra« leaoi 



632 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

peculiar individuals do not impress themselves so strongly nor 
acquire such a prominent place in local traditions as in the old-time 
village days. One such was a certain Daniel Green, commonly called 
'"Doctor Green," who for the space of three decades figured as a 
cicerone, but not by dignified official appointment like Francis 
Thomas — good old "Daddy Thomas" — formerly connected with the 
stewardship of the Young Ladies' Seminai-y, who departed this life 
in 1822, stricken in years, and was laid to rest on Easter Day. 
Thomas was the last who filled this position as a regular appointee of 
the Elders' Conference. There were divers cicerones who served 
either by common consent, or by reason of much leisure, or by 
arrangement with the inn-keeper ; the latter kind serving for a 
gratuity in cash, or more commonly, in the good cheer of the board 
and bar, bestowed by the host or the guest or both. The unofficial 
cicerones of those days — although many visitors found them very 
much to their purpose as dispensers of various kinds of information — 
were not always the most desirable narrators and expositors, 
especially when they were tempted to be more entertaining than 
exact. Some later men who long escorted visitors about the town 
were more discreet and reliable. Another of those characters was 
Doctor John Frederick August Steckel, the man who mixed lan- 
guages, and whose "Farewell to Bethlehem," in rhyme, November 
24, 1826, which has been preserved in print, is not without interest 
in its local allusions — amongst the rest in revealing that the name 
"Cal3'pso" was then already applied to the large island in the Lehigh, 
long called also "Catalpa Island" from its former abundant growth 
of this tree. Nor should it be forgotten to refer to that 
dashing rural adventurer in real-estate speculation, Nicholas Kraemer, 
who for a period statedly had his exchange and entertained at the 
Sun Inn ; whose reckless exploits have been duly chronicled by suc- 
cessive writers ; whose fascination drew numerous confiding rustics 
into the whirlpool of temptation to seek quick fortunes in buying and 
selling land, but who himself suddenly sank in its eddies, more 
execrated than mourned. Tradition proceeding from the impressions 
of the time has exaggerated him into a very Colossus of speculators, 
but probably, according to present day standards of bigness, his 
operations would not now bewilder the people. 

After years of discussion centering around various plans, the 
second hotel was finally established before the time to which this 
chapter runs. It came to pass eventually in this manner. In 1822 
the old village store quartered on the west side of Main Street since 



i8o7 1825. 633 

the days of Christian Heckewelder, was in various respects unsatis- 
factory to the Congregation Diacony. It had also begun to feel 
private competition. Jacob Rice had, in 1819, been permitted to 
open business as a merchant farther up the street, and had founded a 
store which, under successive owners, has had a continuous existence 
to the present time. A smaller store above Goundie's Alley carried 
on by Samuel Steup was, in 1822, passed over to Christian Jungman, 
but did not became a permanent business. Owen Rice, Jr., the suc- 
cessor of his father in charge of the old diacony store, purchased the 
house of C. G. Paulus, the site of the present Bee Hive store, in 

1822, and there established the stand which afterwards belonged to 
James Rice and has had a continuance existence until now. The 
old store, in which WiUiam Rice succeeded Owen for a year, was 
moved across the street into a building that had been occupied for 
a while by John Jacob Luch, baker, followed by his son, Christian 
Luch, who moved the bakery to the log house at the corner of Main 
and Market Streets, where the post-office now is. In the building 
vacated by Luch, John Frederick Wolle, in July, 1824, took charge 
of the business which, in 1845, was sold by the Congregation to 
Augustus Wolle, who, in 1847, also purchased the premises, and 
there, with different partners under various firm names, long carried 
on the general store remembered yet by many. 

December 6, 1822, the Congregation Council resolved that the 
second hotel should now be established in the building before occu- 
pied by the store, and should be conducted for the Congregation 
Diacony. Internal and external changes were required. Outside 
appurtenances, such as stabling, had to be provided and these 
demanded room. Whether the impatient struggle of the time to get 
rid of old things rendered men insensible to the influence of venerable 
associations and deaf to the appeals of historic and antiquarian 
instincts, or whether the ghost of Kraemer lurking about the rear of 
the store so inflated the supposed value per foot of that ground that 
it was thought too precious in dollars for any of it to remain occupied 
by a little old house for mere sentimental reasons, no deponent hath 
said ; but the historic log cabin built by Father Nitschmann and his 
pioneer corps, in which Zinzendorf sang of Bethlehem, at Christmas, 
1 741, suggesting the name that was given to the settlement, and 
around which hallowed memories clung, had to go, in the summer of 

1823, in order to make a place for the new livery stable of the new 
tavern. 



634 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

In December, 1823, the remodeled store building was finished and 
furnished and before Christmas the new inn with the sign of the 
Golden Eagle, painted, as it seems, by Peter Grosh, of Lititz, was 
opened by Charles David Bishop, its first landlord. Thus began the 
history of the Eagle Hotel. Bishop was succeeded two years later 
by Christian Knauss, and he in 1828 by Zebulon Wells, of Philadel- 
phia, who was sold out by the sheriff in 1832. From the autumn of 
that year to April, 1833, Jacob Luckenbach was landlord. Then 
Philip Brong, of Allentown, took charge, followed, in 1834, by 
Samuel Ziegler, who became landlord of the Sun in 1836. His suc- 
cessor at the Eagle was Thomas Morgan, previously of Wilkesbarre, 
who died in 1837, and then Jacob Freeman conducted it until 
August, 1843, when it was rented to Caleb Yohe. 

About the time when the new hotel was opened, a number of lots 
were leased and building permits issued, while sundry houses, 
especially along Main Street, changed hands. Some were planning 
speculations, in aiaticipation of developments they foresaw in the signs 
of the times, and others were feeling their way about after some new 
trade or line of business at which they might better themselves. 
Among the experimental novelties were a millinery stand, paper-box 
making, comb making, the opening of trade in musical instruments, 
which became a more substantial business than the others — the first 
two by C. G. Paulus, the third by John Warner, the fourth by Henry 
Gottlob Guetter, for whom a shop was built by Paulus, adjoining his 
house on Main Street, and who subsequently located on Broad Street, 
west of the alley which yet bears his name. 

A little iron foundry was also attempted in 1824, by Joseph Miksch, 
on the west side of Main Street, north of Broad, where later Jacob 
Siegmund plied his trade with forge and anvil, vise and chisel, and at 
last Henry S. Krause, of the same craft, had an iron store. Watch- 
making and general silversmiths' work seem to have been among the 
more desirable trades at that time. In 1820, Jedediah Weiss who, 
although a master of this trade, is better remembered in connection 
with the music of Bethlehem, and who had bought the stone "oats- 
house," on the east side of Main Street, a little distance below the 
Sun Inn, built there a house in which he carried on this industry for 
more than four decades. In 181 5 he had succeeded his deceased 
master, John Samuel Krause, and further instructed his junior fellow- 
apprentice and musical associate, Charles Frederick Beckel. John 
Matthew Miksch — that veteran in the craft, last on Wall Street and 




EAGLE HOTEL 
1862 
1892 



i8o7 1825. 635 

well remembered by many — had his shop, in 1823, in the old stone 
"Economy House," farther down. 

This was one of the occupations in connection with which the 
village fathers had difficulty over against the abundance of applicants, 
like with the competing store-keepers and mercantile aspirants, in 
enforcing the old system of protection and regulating supply and 
demand, so that all might make a living and none should drive others 
out of business in applying the principle of "survival of the fittest." 
Charles Tombler and the others who worked at the solid old trade of 
shoe-making had more competition at country villages and cross 
roads than silversmiths had. That trade, like some others, does not 
seem to have been so much coveted. The tinsmith, the cabinet-mak- 
ers, the wagon-makers, the blacksmiths, the butchers and the bakers 
seem to have prospered fairly well, but there was not room for more 
than one or two of any of these in the village. Among those who had 
more desire to engage in selling something than in producing some- 
thing, there were a few, from time to time, who, floundering as to 
occupation, wanted to begin some little easy business more in the line 
of "town ways," such as selling oysters and other things to eat — and 
drink — and to gather in the spare dimes of those who were not too 
frugal to spend a little money when they got hungry or thirsty for 
something beyond the resources of the home kitchen, while enjoying 
a place at which to lounge and chat. For reasons which they could 
doubtless defend, the official fathers were always much averse to 
encouraging this kind of enterprise. 

Among the original establishments of more importance which men 
desired to get possession of was the old grist-mill, for this was a 
solid business. Although it did not pass out of the ownership of the 
Congregation Diacony until 1830, the salarizing of a miller to run 
it for the authorities ceased in 1825. It was leased to that former 
soldier under Napoleon, George Henry Woehler, who had come to 
Bethlehem in 1817, and became the successor of John Schneider at 
the mill. 

The old fulling-mill annexed to it was yet intermittently run by 
Matthew Eggert. but its removal to the saw-mill was under consider- 
ation alreadv in 1820. The grist-mill and the tannery being the most 
conspicuous of the earlv industries yet surviving in that old part of 
Bethlehem, the desirability of good facilities of approach from neigh- 
borhoods to the west had inspired persistent efforts to secure a new 
stone bridge across the Monocacy "at Weinlands (now the slaughter 
house) from the mill to the Allentown road." Petitions presented in 



■636 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

1815 had been promptly granted in Northampton County and were 
renewed and granted again in 1818; but in the new County of Lehigh, 
with its competitive interests at Allentown, they were obstructively 
dealt with until, at last, after the third favorable report by the Grand 
Jury of Northampton County, August 23, 1822, that of Lehigh 
County finally took similar action on the 6th of the following Sep- 
tember. The "mill road" had, in 1815, been viewed by a jury, "from 
the Main Street down past the mill to the Monocacy," and for the first 
time declared a public road. It was afterwards found on record that 
the section from the mill to the creek had been so viewed and 
■declared already in 1804. It may be added in this connection that at 
this period the definite establishment and naming of streets was 
engaging attention. On June 18, 1819, after a new locating of lines 
and corners, the names, as now borne, of Main 'Street, New Street, 
Cedar Street and Church Alley were first formally adopted by the 
Congregation Council, and in September, that of Market Street, 
which it had been proposed to call Lombard Street. 

There were in 1823, upwards of seventy dwellings in the town, in 
addition to the church and school buildings and those that were 
exclusively shops and places of business. 

While the prospects were brightening and Bethlehem, under the 
relaxed system and some important reforms, might have begun to 
move forward smoothly, a cloud 3'et hung over affairs because the 
controversy with the autocratic Administrator about selling some 
land to get out of debt still continued. He felt fortified in his position 
by the findings and reports of the financial committee of the General 
Synod, in 1818. The Bethlehem people were not prepared, however, 
to surrender the conviction that they owned their land. The report 
of a committee appointed at a meeting of voting members, early in 
1819, to consider the whole subject, was rendered in February, 1821, 
and adopted. The Administrator formally objected to certain points 
and a second committee was appointed to review the first report in 
the light of his objections, with the hope that they might be satisfac- 
torily met. When, upon hearing the report of the second committee, 
he refused to recede in any particular from his original position, and 
it became evident that he would obstruct to the uttermost, it was 
resolved on April 10, to break off all negotiations with him. and a 
committee of nine was appointed to "lay the whole status causae 
before the Unity's Elders' Conference, with a faithful presentation 
of the general condition of things at Bethlehem, after giving the 
Provincial Board official notice of this step." Cunow's final effort was 



i807 1825. 637 

to induce his colleagues in that board to interpose technical objec- 
tions, and when the}- decided to let matters take their course, he put 
in the plea that they ought to stand by him, as a colleague, and by 
the Sustentation Diacony against Bethlehem, claiming that its inter- 
ests were endangered by the action of the Congregation. Failing 
in this, he found himself standing entirely alone. They resolved that 
it was inexpedient to discuss the points of his pro memoria to them, 
and thus a breach resulted between him and his colleagues, in addi- 
tion to that now hopelessly existing between him and the Bethlehem 
boards, while much bitterness was stirred up among the people by his 
course. 

In July, 1 82 1, before the appeal sent by the Bethlehem Land Com- 
mittee had been considered and passed upon by the Unity's Elders' 
Conference, a letter was received from this body announcing the 
call of the Rev. Lewis David de Schweinitz, of Salem, North Carolina, 
as Head Pastor at Bethlehem, and the proposed transfer of Cunow 
to his place at Salem. De Schweinitz accepted the call to Bethlehem, 
but that of Cunow had to be revoked in consequence of strenuous 
objections at Salem. De Schweinitz arrived at Bethlehem, December 
15, 1821. He was a son of the first Administrator, John C. A. de 
Schweinitz, and had been in Europe from the departure of the family 
from Bethlehem in 1798 until he returned to America at the begin- 
ning of the war, in September, 1812, after a voyage of much adven- 
ture and peril. Since that time he had been at Salem. While the 
\J. E. C. had misgivings about his willingness to step into such a 
position as that which had developed at Bethlehem, they felt that in 
general ability, requisite acquaintance with all the questions involved 
and personal popularity, he would be more likely to master matters 
than any man available. February 5, 1822, Bishop Hueffel commu- 
nicated a letter from the LLE. C. to the Provincial Board, announcing 
that Cunow was relieved of all his offices and functions and tempo- 
rarily retired. He left Bethlehem with his family on May 7, to return 
to Europe. During his long term of service he had displayed great 
ability, zeal and faithfulness in a variety of duties, and in many 
respects had been an eminently useful man. His ultra conservatism 
in the matter of church government, his extreme and uncompromis- 
ing views on the enforcement of regulations — failing to see that much 
in the internal condition of the Congregation which he criticised was 
simplv the product of such a regime — and finally his determination 
to defeat the will of the people by means of the power which the 
system gave him, were probably the agencies needed to call forth 



638 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the thought and action that would produce the desirable changes. 
DeSchweinitz now became Administrator of the estates in his place, 
in addition to his duties as Head Pastor and for a while also Prin- 
cipal of the Seminary for Young Ladies. His position was difficult 
and his labors were arduous. 

February 18, 1823, the decision of the U. E. C. on the land ques- 
tion that had been appealed was received. While strongly urging 
that controversy now cease, they took the responsibility of setting 
aside the adopted report of the financial committee of the General 
Synod, which had inclined towards Cunow's position, with which 
they did not agree. They also called for the formulation and adop- 
tion of new articles of agreement on the basis of 1771, between the 
Administrator and Bethlehem, to meet the situation and provide 
against any future controversy of the kind. On April 8, 1823, the 
Bethlehem Congregation elected Charles David Bishop, John 
Frederick Ranch, Jacob Rice, Owen Rice, David Peter Schneller 
and the Warden, John Frederick Stadiger, a committee to negotiate 
with de Schweinitz, the Administrator, to this end. After protracted 
deliberations, such new articles, receiving the sanction of the Pro- 
vincial Board — for they involved relations also to the Sustentation 
Diacony — were adopted by the voting membership at Bethlehem, 
March 2, 1824. A new agreement between the Proprietor and the 
Bethlehem Congregation was also drawn by de Schweinitz. It 
embodied an explicit declaration that the title he held to the land 
was a trust for the Bethlehem Congregation. These discussions, of 
course, had nothing to do with any questions about the soundness 
and validity in law of the title held by the Proprietor. No questions 
on this point ever arose. The Proprietor at this time was yet Bishop 
Jacob Van Vleck who, in 1822, seven years after his consecration to 
the episcopacy, had removed from Salem to Bethlehem and retired. 

He finally signed this agreement and thus the main question was 
settled in a way that prevented a recurrence of such a situation as 
that which Cimow, under power of attorney from him, had produced. 
There was general gratification at the result of these efforts and the 
temper of the people was consequently such that the settlement of 
other troublesome questions became easier. A gradual straightening 
out of things that were awry ensued and an era of better feeling set in. 
It was with considerable satisfaction therefore that the new Admin- 
istrator left in March, 1825, for Europe, to attend the next General 
Svnod and complete that part of the business which had to do with 
the General Wardens of the Unitv. He returned to Bethlehem on 



i8o7 1825. 639 

November 30, to resume his labors. With the end of this episode a 
distinct period in the progress of things closed. Although the so- 
called exclusive system continued a number of years longer, there 
was a very diiiferent state of affairs at Bethlehem from that which 
existed prior to 1814, and the "close regime" was no longer possible. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Transition from Church-Village to Borough. 
1826 — 1845. 

The solution of vexed questions, the new agreements and tlie 
revised regulations which brought controversy to an end and intro- 
duced a season of more cheerful activity, did not result in a fixed 
condition. It was merely the beginning of a more natural and 
orderly transition from the exclusive church-village organization to 
that of a town hke others. Such a transition had been not only pre- 
pared for, but rendered inevitable by the occurrences of the preced- 
ing years. External influences also began to affect the situation 
more decidedly than before, and to produce new internal problems 
in addition to those which had previously appeared, making it plain 
to some far-sighted men that further reconstructions would have to 
proceed in the direction which had been taken until there remained 
nothing more that was unique in the system of the place and incon- 
gruous with its surroundings and connections. The transition was 
very gradual and extended over two decades. The events which 
marked its progress were mainly grouped about three principal 
epochs that produced forward movements with pauses of a few years 
intervening. Two of these were chiefly industrial and financial, one 
was educational. The most conspicuous of the former kind was at 
hand when the period embraced in this chapter opened. 

What has been called the modern carboniferous age had dawned 
in the Lehigh Valley. No allusion has yet been made in these pages 
to the discovery and early attempts to make use of the vast treas- 
ures, now so familiar, that were buried in the great hills from which 
the Lehigh flows down. It has been reserved for the time when the 
revolutionizing activities which grew out of that discovery began to 
affect Bethlehem. The record of the advent of anthracite coal from 
the upper Lehigh into the world of industries, and into the body of 
nature's ministries to human comfort, is such an oft-written and 
familiar chapter in the history of the region that much space need 

640 



1826 1845- 641 

not be given to it here. A grave in the old cemetery at Bethlehem 
furnished a resting-place to the remains of one of the pioneers in 
the effort to make the pubHc believe that those "black stones which 
became black diamonds," found by Philip Ginter, but known before 
that to be there underground, could be burned and were valuable. 
It was in 1792, when Bethlehem was fifty years old and the Assembly 
of Pennsylvania authorized John Schropp, the Warden of the place, 
to build the first bridge across the Lehigh, that Charles Cist — Halle 
graduate in medicine, former Russian army surgeon, then Phila- 
delphia printer and some time a Moravian — joined with Col. Jacob 
Weiss, of New Gnadenhuetten — later Fort Allen and finally Weiss- 
port — also of previous Moravian connection, who took the first 
specimens of the black mineral, found two years before by Ginter, 
to Philadelphia; Michael Hillegass — merchant, musician and United 
States Treasurer during the Revolution — and several others. in mak- 
ing the first purchase of coal-land in the region of that discovery 
and in forming the original Lehigh Coal Company. Schropp and 
others who urged that the building of the bridge take precedence 
of other improvements agitated, were interested in those projects 
up in the hills, as they were in the building of roads and the develop- 
ment of inland navigation. The bridge was significant of their 
anticipations in the line of material advance, and doubtless they, like 
Cist, Weiss and Hillegass, dreamed dreams about the black stones 
far up the Lehigh ; for it was only six years after Weiss took the 
first of them to Philadelphia that they were experimented with at 
the forge of William Henry, above Nazareth, one of the Moravians 
associated with the enterprise of 1792. 

It appears that among the twenty-six men who, in 1793, subscribed 
to the stock of that primitive company — fifty shares of $400, the 
tract of coal-land taken up being 1,000 acres — seven were Moravians 
holding twenty of the shares. Three of these taking four shares — 
Schropp and two others — were Bethlehem men. Two, with a share 
each, lived at Nazareth. It was in 1805, the year in which Warden 
Schropp died, that Cist also suddenly died of apoplexy, after a tour 
up in the wild country, looking after those incipient interests, and 
in December his body was laid to rest in the old cemetery at Beth- 
lehem, where his daughters lived and, like their mother in Philadel- 
phia, were Moravians. Hillegass had died the previous year and 
Weiss, whose son became prominently connected with the mining 
of anthracite after men had ceased to declare in their haste that it 



642 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

was worthless, was the only one of those leading three who lived to 
see their faith vindicated. The next year after Cist's death the first 
of the oft-described "arks" — floating coal-bins that looked a little 
like the coal cars of later years — was poled down the Lehigh past 
Bethlehem with a load of the "stone coal" which the persistent be- 
lievers in it begged men at Philadelphia to try. Discouragement fol- 
lowed, but in 1813 the effort was hopefully revived, and on August 3, 
a more imposing ark with twenty-four tons passed under the Beth- 
lehem bridge on its way down stream to the sea-board. In 181 5 
it was being sold at Bethlehem by C. G. Paulus, acting as agent ^o 
introduce it. That was the beginning of coal-yards at Bethlehem. 
Then in 1819, when those enterprising men, Erskine Hazard, Josiah 
White, George F. A. Hauto, and their associates of the Lehigh 
Navigation Company, leased the land of that first coal mining com- 
pany, and vigorous operations were commenced, with Hauto on the 
ground superintending them and even experimenting with a "steam 
wagon" as a substitute for oxen to draw the product from the mines 
— precursor of the locomotives that would, after the lapse of some 
more years, daily bring thousands of tons thundering down the 
valley — men at Bethlehem who were able and willing to look about 
them and out into the future, were stirred by the thought of what it 
might all mean for their town, by and by. 

No wonder that the trammels in which Administrator Cunow was 
then yet trying to keep them, with their land held stubbornly in his 
clutch, were becoming intolerable, as the fever of enterprise rose 
with each new report of progress in those efforts up the river. The 
next year (1820), when the Navigation Company of 1798 and the 
Coal Company of 1792 were combined as the Lehigh Navigation and 
Coal Company — finally called the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany and so incorporated in 1822 — the results appeared in a whole 
fleet of arks passing Bethlehem with hundreds of tons of the valu- 
able fuel which men were now learning how to burn; and then they 
became a familiar sight. They were significant, in that transition 
time, of a transition also in the associations of the beautiful Lehigh 
at Bethlehem from the sentimental to the utilitarian. The canal- 
building period had also opened in the country to enlarge the visions 
of men who were interested in business. The Schuylkill canal was 
completed in 1825, followed, soon after, by the opening of the Union 
canal and the great Erie canal, while the grand scheme of transpor- 
tation from Philadelphia to Pittsburg by means of the long Penn- 
sylvania canal was being rapidly pushed forward with a result, in 



1826 1 845- 643 

1831, of two hundred and ninety-two miles of canal and a hundred 
.and twenty-six miles of railroad. The Lehigh Valley was at the 
front in this kind of enterprise. With the opening of the anthracite 
collieries of the upper Lehigh, nine miles of railroad, for the steam 
wagon at the mines, and the first miles of slack-water navigation 
were put into operation at Mauch Chunk before the end of 1826. 
Then followed naturally the rapid extension of the canal all the way 
to Easton, to supersede the less satisfactory river navigation. 

In the summer of 1827, a sensation was created at quiet Bethlehem 
by preparations for work at the canal. Excavations in the vicinity 
were commenced in August. On June 2, 1829, the water was first 
turned into the section that passes the town and on June 10, the first 
two boats loaded with coal passed down from Mauch Chunk. Very 
soon a packet boat carrying passengers was running. The name of 
the first seems to have been the "Swan." The diary of Bethlehem 
mentions the arrival of a military company from Philadelphia, on 
June 24, 1829, with the statement that they proceeded to Easton on 
the canal-boat. The first effect at Bethlehem was local encroachment 
and necessary changes where the cut was made. It is to be regretted 
that the meagre references do not present a fuller picture of altera- 
tions in the topography. One building that had to be removed was 
the laundry of the Young Ladies' Seminary. The new one was 
finished early in September, just before the large force of diggers 
invaded the locality. Havoc was also wrought with the fertile acres 
between the Monocacy and the Lehigh which had been under tillage 
as the "boarding-school fields." It was then decided by the authori- 
ties to abandon raising grain on that section of school land. Another 
change made necessary was in the location of a business site. Ow"en 
Rice, who in 1822 had built the grist-mill up the Monocac}^ which 
for many years has been a paint-mill, had a ware-house for grain, 
flour and feed combined with a cooper shop, near the river. It was 
rendered useless for him by the building of the canal, and was, 
after that time, occupied for other purposes. In the summer 
of 1829, he purchased, to use instead of it, for the sum 
of $1,000, the abandoned brewery property of the former 
Brethren's House Diacony, the building in which, in the 
spring of 1838, Copeland Boyd established a paper-mill — its 
site being the first ground within the limits of Bethlehem deeded 
away in fee simple, as a necessity to the owner in negotiating for 
water-power from the canal — and which, after this industry ceased, 
served as a barrel factory for the Pennsylvania and Lehisfh Zinc 



644 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Company and, at last, as a foundry-facing mill, until it was consumed 
by fire, March 15, 1885. It occupied the site of the present Diamond 
Roller Mill on the south canal bank at the Main Street bridge. The 
course of the Monocacy was also artificially altered somewhat, to 
facilitate the construction of the aqueduct, and some changes were 
required at the saw-mill. Bridges, of course, had to be built across 
the canal; one at the Main Street entrance to the town from the 
river bridge, and a foot-bridge leading over to the saw-mill from the 
miller's house, ensconced at the foot of the bluff just east of the 
present New Street bridge, overlooking the old-time boat-yard — a 
comfortable and pleasant abode, as later improved, until the con- 
struction of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad made life a 
burden to the occupants. Not only the grain fields of the lowland, 
where once the Friedenshuetten of the exiled Indian converts from 
persecuting New York stood, but many a fine tree and familiar path, 
with embowered nooks here and there, had to be sacrificed at the 
foot of Bethlehem's hill; and the pitiless ravages of industry upon 
the picturesque, which have never ceased along the course of the 
Lehigh River, had fairly set in. The canal itself added some pretty 
landscape features, after it became old, which partly compensated 
for those which it destroyed, but at first the new ditch must have 
been a sight far from attractive, in beholding which the thought of 
increased business and all that imagination could picture as desir- 
able, following in the wake of this, had to be kept constantly in mind 
to reconcile many a Bethlehemite to the innovation. 

Now and then an incident in connection with the construction of 
the canal is mentioned in the records of Bethlehem, several of them 
of a pathetic nature. Thus, on Januarj' 8, 1828, one of the workmen 
who approached a fuse which he supposed had gone out, was sud- 
denly blown into the air by the blast and hurled into the river. 
During August and September of that year, when the weather was 
excessively warm, the vast quantity of up-turned earth produced an 
epidemic of fever. A foreman on the canal, a certain Alvin Newton 
from Connecticut, died on August 7; his wife followed him on Sep- 
tember 14, and their infant daughter on September 28. They were 
all interred in the row along the Market street border of the Beth- 
lehem Cemetery. There is a comment in the diary on the general 
good behavior of the workmen, and gratification is expressed that 
no disturbance was occasioned by the large number of them who 
attended the Christmas services. The record at the close of 1S29 
reveals also some of the fears and fancies of the people, in the remark 



1826 1 845- 645 

that no harm had come from stagnant water in the canal because the 
water was kept in motion, and that there had been no diminution in 
the river wlien the canal was filled. 

Sundry buildings were soon erected along the canal, and in 1830 
the cluster received the name South Bethlehem. This name was 
appHed to that portion of the present West Bethlehem which Hes 
between the Monocacy and the Lehigh from the western end of 
Vineyard Street, where Lehigh Avenue — formerly Canal Street, — 
runs into it, to the saw-mill eastward. 

Industries were soon undertaken, such as the sale of lumber and 
coal by Timothy Weiss, and the beginning of more extensive oper- 
ations in that line was made by Henry G. Guetter, joined later by 
others. They laid the foundations of the well-known business with 
which subsequently the names Borhek, Knauss and Miksch became 
associated. Some even predicted that there the business center 
would be in future years. The most conspicuous building that arose 
was Bethlehem's third hotel, the Anchor Hotel, first kept by Captain 
Henry Woehler, mentioned in the previous chapter — afterwards for a 
while the "South Bethlehem House" — the later widely-known Fetter 
House, replaced a few years ago by the present commodious building 
with the old name retained. There the old soldier who fought at 
W^aterloo and, amid the more peaceful pursuits of his later life, be- 
came the first Captain of the Bethlehem Guards who faced no foes, 
unless possibly the shades of those non-combatant fathers who had 
shunned the drill-ground on battalion day, even when there was no 
war, and paid their fines, had the honor of entertaining for some 
weeks a foreign guest of rank, Maximilian Prince of Wied, traveling 
as Herr von Brennberg. Pleased with the place, its surrovmdings and 
its people, he tarried long and added materially to his collection of 
American Natitralien. He also made sketches of scenes in the 
vicinity. Like earlier famous travelers he wrote about Bethlehem 
in his published narative.^ 

He describes the river, the hills and the flora of the neighborhood 
much in the style of Dr. Schoepf, quoted in a previous chapter, and 
comments on the attractive features of Bethlehem as well as on its 
material prospects at that time. Referring to people he met, he says 

I Maximilian Prince of Wied — Travels in North America, \x&-!\^&\.t&. from the German 
by H. Evans Lloyd, London, 1843. The picture of Calypso Island, on which he passed 
many hours — typical of the primitive beauty of Bethlehem's surroundings — given in this 
volume, is a reproduction of the sketch made by John Bodmar, the artist, who accompanied 
him. 



646 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

"I became acquainted with the Directors of this colony, Mr. Von 
Schweinitz, well-known in the literary world as a distinguished bot- 
anist; Mr. Anders, the Bishop and the Rev. Mr. Seidel. All these 
gentlemen received me in a very friendly manner, and Mr. Seidel, in 
particular, showed me much kindness. Dr. Saynisch lives in the 
same house with me and I derived great benefit from his knowledge 
of the country." Referring to his excursions in the neighborhood 
in search of specimens he says : "The Rev. Mr. Seidel, who had a 
good library and a taste for the study of nature, had the kindness to 
provide us with the necessarj' literary assistance. We lived here very 
agreeably in the society of well-informed men and fellow-country- 
men, and our residence at the extremity of the place, close to the 
woods and fields, afforded us the most favorable opportunity for our 
researches and labors; and our landlord, Mr. Woehler, from West- 
phalia, did everything in his power to assist us in our occupations." 

The broadening" horizon, perceptible at Bethlehem at the period 
introduced in this chapter, was not merely in the realm of material 
business. It appears also in the growing spirit of American citizen- 
ship supplanting the idea of being "a peculiar people," self-centered 
and ruled in thought and practice only from within, which was foster- 
ed by the regime of the preceding several decades. The authorities 
of the village no longer deprecated, as unsuitable and tried to sup- 
press such things as patriotic demonstrations, but encouraged and led 
ofif in them, in so far as they were of a character consistent with good 
order and Christian decorum. They no longer merely mourned over 
Fourth of July ebullitions, as evidences of degeneracy, but, by a more 
liberal and rational course, they held unseemly excesses in check 
more successfully than had previously been done by the vain attempt 
at stern repression. They even tolerated shooting. On July 4, 1826, 
an elaborate celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration 
of Independence was ushered in by a salute of fifty guns, in accord- 
ance with a resolution of the Congregation Council. At the jubilee 
services the church was elaborately decorated, a feature being fifty 
large boquets of flowers artistically placed. The best music of that 
highly musical period was rendered. The Rev. C. F. Seidel preached 
in German in the forenoon, the Rev. L. D. deSchweinitz delivered 
an English oration in the afternoon and a special celebration, mainly 
of a musical character, took place at the Young Ladies' Seminary in 
the evening. On that memorable day, the second and third Presi- 
dents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, departed this life, and 



1826 1 845- 647 

on Avigust 6, memorial services were held at Bethlehem, in accord- 
ance with the proclamation of the President of that time, John 
Quincy Adams, son of John Adams. Solemn chorals, as at the 
death of a member of the Church, were played by the trombonists 
at six o'clock. After the bell had been tolled half an hour, a German 
service with preaching by Seidel was held at half past ten. A similar 
service took place in English at three o'clock, when de Schweinitz 
preached, and in the evening there was a rendition of Mozart's 
requiem mass. It was in that same summer of 1826, that a very 
handsome piece of embroidery, executed by pupils of the Young 
Ladies' Seminary, after being exhibited at the closing exercises on 
July 28, was sent to Mrs. Adams, wife of the President, who received 
it with pleasure and courteously acknowledged it. 

On July 4, 1829, the interests of an organization which for some 
years commanded wide attention and was regarded as of great im- 
portance by many throughout the countr\-, but is now almost for- 
gotten, were first presented at Bethlehem, where it met a cordial 
response and where, for a number of years, collections in aid of its 
objects were annually taken on the Fourth of July, or the nearest 
convenient day, in accordance with the appeal and suggestion of its 
officers to the Christian public. This was the American Coloniza- 
tion Society, sometimes called also the African Colonization Society, 
which came into existence in December, 1816, with its headquarters 
at the National Capital and with men like Bushrod Washington, 
Henry Clay, John Randolph of Roanoke, General Jackson and 
others of eminence among its early officers and promoters. 
Numerous state auxiliaries were formed later. Its purpose was to 
solve the negro problem in the United States by deportation and 
colonization on the west coast of Africa, where the first colony, 
Monrovia, in Liberia, was founded in 1820; and by means of such 
colonies to promote philanthropy in efforts to break the slave trade 
and to spread civilization and religion in that region. In 1837, the 
State Society of Pennsylvania, which had established a colony at 
Bassa Cove, opened correspondence with the Moravian authorities 
in reference to securing reliable Christian negroes from the mis- 
sions of the Church in the West Indies as assistant missionaries, 
teachers and industrial leaders at those African stations on the dark 
coast where, a hundred years before, the Moravian Church had 
made a first attempt through the agency of a converted native to 
found missions. Strangely enough, the extreme abolitionists and 
the slave-traders joined from opposite ends in combating this 



040 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

scheme, which was eventually abandoned as not practicable, so far 
as its purpose in connection with the racial and social problem was 
concerned which the United States, by fostering the institution of 
slavery, had imposed upon itself and with which the Nation is yet 
struggling. The interest manifested at Bethlehem in the experi- 
ment, so long as it was persevered in, caused the Fourth of July 
collection for the support of this object, with occasional addresses 
in its interest, to be continued as a feature of the annual routine. 
The suggestive associations of this enterprise were quickened by 
such occasions as the celebration, in 1832, of the centennial anniver- 
sary of the beginning of Moravian missions among the negro slaves 
of the West Indies, which visibly increased the waning missionary 
zeal at Bethlehem, as did also the celebration of the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. An interesting 
tangible evidence appeared several years later. 

In the early autumn of 1840, several young men, students of the 
Theological Seminary and others — the prime mover being David 
Zeisberger Smith, son of a missionary to the Indians, and himself a 
candidate for that service — promulgated the following : "A Plan 
for instituting a Missionary Society of Young Men at Bethlehem, 
Penna. All single men who are in favor of furthering the missions 
of the United Brethren among the Heathen are here respectfully 
invited to sign their names, in order to form a society exclusively for 
this purpose." Twenty-nine young men signed the paper. A meet- 
ing was held in the boys' school-house, September 7, 1840, and the 
Society was organized by the election of David Zeisberger Smith as 
President ; Henry J. Van Vleck, Vice-President ; Augustus Wolle, 
Recording Secretary; William H. Warner, Treasurer; Amadeus A. 
Reinke, Edward H. Reichel and Albert Butner, Directors. A month 
later the office of Corresponding Secretary was added, the first 
incumbent being Maurice C. Jones. A constitution was adopted at 
that meeting and signed by thirty-one young men. Thus was 
founded the Young Men's Missionary Society which, through many 
vicissitudes, with frequently alternating ebb and flow of zeal : through 
various experiments with notions to alter its character, elaborating 
its scope and variety of objects, expanding it at times into a kind 
of general Christian Association, converting it into a literary, librar}"- 
and lecture bureau, or into a guild for the intellectual and moral 
improvement of the young men of the town, the organization mean- 
while several times almost dying, but always getting back again to 
its real purpose, has had an unbroken existence to this time. Only 



1826 1845- 649 

two of its original members survive at this writing: Simon Rau, of 
Bethlehem, and its first Vice-President, Bishop H. J. Van Vleck, of 
Gnadenhuetten, Ohio. In connection with reference to these revivals 
of interest in evangelization among the heathen, another symptom 
of the opening and broadening spirit in relation to general condi- 
tions in the country, that was at work at Bethlehem, as in other old 
Moravian congregations, may be mentioned. This was the growing 
conviction among many who were living and thinking in touch with 
the movements of the time, while they also kept in mind the old pro- 
fession of Moravian settlements to be centers of religious influence, 
that Moravians ought to resume their share of duty in the cause of 
evangelization at home and engage in Home Mission work. There 
were those at Bethlehem who felt that in this matter also the com- 
munity ought to extricate itself from the trammels of the system 
they were endeavoring to shatter. It was a natural feeling for those 
men to cherish who were both business men and Christians and who 
in both respects were alive to the demands of the time. This sub- 
ject had engaged attention at a Synod in Bethlehem in 1824. It 
was considered in discussing the American situation at the General 
Synod of 1825. Interest was awakened at Bethlehem in the first 
distinct move in the direction of modern church extension made in 
the State of Indiana in 1829, in the- proposition to organize work 
among the German colonists who had settled in the beech forest of 
^^'a_^^le County, Pennsylvania, in 1828, and in the enterprise started 
by New York Moravians in 1830, in Washington County, in that 
State. The next General Synod in Europe, held in 1836, gave utter- 
ance to views decidedly favorable to such a return, on the part of 
American Moravians, to the attitude and policy of the days before 
the Revolution. Although the movement then halted while further 
local problems were engrossing attention, and. so far as Bethlehem 
was concerned, a definite organization for aggressive church activity 
at home did not come into existence until the Bethlehem Home Mis- 
sion Societv was formed in 1849, ^^^ ^I'^t stirring in this direction 
took place, along with other agitations, when the advent of coal and 
canal opened a new era of progress. There were some at that time 
whose ideas of moving forward were large enough and high enough 
to embrace more than merely floating some kind of business on the 
new waves of prosperity that glided down the canal, and breaking 
up the lease-system so that they might redeem their ground rents, 
build houses ad libifniii. purchase other lots and share in the advan- 
tage of a rise in value. 



650 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The period of new prosperity that opened with the completion of 
the canal did not last long. The financial reaction that so generally 
followed the inordinate rush of public improvements in the country 
and the attendant headlong ventures in speculation, soon affected 
Bethlehem also, and many who had encumbered themselves in over- 
confident undertakings were stranded, for their resources were too 
meagre to enable them to survive the crisis. A season of dire per- 
plexity for those who controlled the property and managed the 
finances of the Congregation and of the Unity or Church General 
at Bethlehem ensued. The enlargement of the credit system that 
had proceeded beyond the limit of safety almost proved ruinous. 
The Bethlehem Diacony was heavily in debt to the Administrator 
who represented the General Wardens of the Unity, for several suc- 
cessive years closed its annual accounts with a considerable 
deficiency and yet had abundant resources latent in the land held for 
it in trust by the Proprietor. The increasing desire of property 
owners to have the Iease-S3rstem abolished and the disposition of 
some to agitate the matter without due consideration of all the 
interests that needed to be guarded by proceeding with much delib- 
eration and caution; even the readiness of some to use various little 
advantages of the situation to embarrass and undermine, with a view 
to forcing the issue, served to render the state of affairs pro- 
dv\ced by this financial crisis very perplexing. There had been 
what would be called in present-day speech "a building boom." 
The straits into which various individuals were brought sub- 
jected the Administrator and the Congregation Diacony to the 
necessity of purchasing numerous houses in order to prevent 
them from coming under alien ownership at sheriff's sale ; for 
it must be remembered that the real reason for maintaining the 
lease-system had been, not financial policy in view of increasing 
value, but to preserve the exclusive church-village organization by 
enabling the authorities to thus discriminate and restrict in the 
matter of possession of buildings and residence in the place. The 
number of persons among residents who were not members of the 
Church had, up to this time, been very small and the authorities had 
been able to exercise strict control in the question of persons to 
whom they would lease property, besides retaining, by mutual agree- 
ment, the power to terminate each lease at the expiration of a year 
or, in case of a clear violation of contract, to annul it at their dis- 
cretion. But the number of such non-members was slowlv increas- 
ing through various circumstances which could not be prevented. 



1826 1845. ■ 651 

The necessity of deriving income from the properties that had to be 
thus bought in compelled the authorities to be less select and rigid 
in the matter of tenants than they desired. It is easy to understand- 
that if one after another such property were allowed to simply go to 
the highest bidder at sheriff's sale, all control over the ownership of 
many buildings would soon be lost, and complete demoralization of 
the system would ensue. 

Two unpleasant features of the situation especially aggravated 
these embarrassments. One was the fact that some who were com- 
pelled to sacrifice their houses and some who sp-W the shortest and 
easiest way out of their difficulties in letting them simply get into 
the sheriff's hands, knowing that under existing circumstances the 
Administrator would have to buy them, took improper advantage of 
this way out. Even worse were cases in which by collusion the 
valuation was run up unfairly by the jury appointed under the 
arrangement that existed to appraise the buildings. The other 
feature of the troublesome situation referred to was the assertion, 
freely circulated by designing persons, that there were flaws in the 
form of the house-leases, so that their terms and conditions could 
not, if put to the test, be insisted upon. Inasmuch as all the power 
the authorities had to maintain the regulations of the village and be 
rid of undesirable people lay in the terms of these leases, this grow- 
ing impression, fostered by indiscreet and not over-conscientious 
individuals among those men of the place who were trying to hasten 
the dissolution of the system, produced a disposition in some quar- 
ters to violate contracts and defy ejectment: in others to ignore the 
existing rules of the village when an advantageous opportunity 
occurred to sub-let apartments. In 1830. a legal opinion on this 
subject was procured of that distinguished jurist, Horace Binny. He 
declared that there was no flaw in the leases and that no jury could 
without violation of conscience frustrate the purpose of a quit-notice 
under their terms : but that, on the other hand, if the jury required for 
summarv procedttre bv the sheriff rendered an unjust verdict, there 
was no process for redress. The Proprietor could avoid this last 
resort by the slower course of issuing a writ of ejectment against a 
refractorv tenant. A further legal opinion was gotten on the ques- 
tion whether the Proprietor, in cases of seizure by the sheriff, to 
which some were purposely letting thines come, was compelled to 
enter as a bidder in order to save the situation. The opinion was 
that, while there was nothing to prevent the sheriff from seizing the 
property of a lessee, the purchaser could not acquire more right in 



652 • A HISTORIC OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the house than its owner had, but, hke him, was bound by the terms 
of the lease ; that the sum bid at the sale could not control an 
appraisement made under the terms of the lease, even though it 
might influence the appraisers, but that they could not go beyond 
"the actual present value of the property" which their oath bound 
them to determine. Mr. Binny advised that the Proprietor com- 
municate at such a sheriff's sale what the circumstances were under 
the lease and enter objection to the sale taking place. Then, if the 
sheriff proceeded — as he probably would have to — at once annul tjie 
lease in the hands of the possessor and insist on the appraisement, 
as provided for. If the purchaser was one who would be an unob- 
jectionable possessor or occupant, a new lease could then be made 
to him. It was advised, however, by all means to avoid litigation 
in the courts, in the interest of all concerned, in view of the unusual 
nature of the whole arrangement and the questions that might be 
raised by counsel not thoroughly conversant with its peculiarities or 
disposed to needlessly shake confidence. 

These various points sufficiently reveal the perplexities of the situ- 
ation, the internal conditions that were making it very difficult to 
maintain the lease-system and all that was dependent upon it, and 
the circumstances that forced the conviction upon deSchweinitz, who 
was then the Proprietor and Administrator, and upon the majority 
of his colleagues in the Provincial Board, that the time had come 
to take steps in the direction of reconstructing the entire system ; 
even doing away eventually with the proprietorship and abandoning 
the exclusive polity. It was concluded, however, that it would not 
be wise to proceed with such measures during the financial crisis and 
the excitement that prevailed, and that the preliminary steps must 
be taken quietly and leisurely ; at every step consulting legal counsel 
thoroughly competent, through a careful study of the situation and 
its genesis, to give advice that could be relied upon. In June, 1833. 
when these conclusions were recorded, five such properties that had 
passed into the hands of the sheriff had been purchased in one year 
at a cost of $13,790 — one of them being the new hotel of Henry 
Woehhler at the canal, for $6,000. Among the special financial meas- 
ures adopted in 1829 and 1830, to relieve the Congregation Diacony 
of unprofitable operations, was the sale of several industries that had 
been conducted bv lessees. The grist-mill was sold to Charles 
Augustus Luckenbach and the tannerv to Joseph Leibert and his 
son James. The plan of having the hotels conducted h\ salaried 



1826 1845- 653 

landlords was given up. Although these establishments were not 
sold at that time, they were leased to private parties. 

During the summer of 183 1, the hardships of the situation were 
increased by an epidemic of fever. The hotels were emptied and 
scores of people in the village were prostrated. During July and 
August, there were frequently two and once three funerals on one 
day. The record states that seven persons who were not members 
of the Church died. One of these was the Hon. William Jones, of 
Philadelphia, who had been Secretary of the Navy under President 
Madison. He was on his way to the mountains for the benefit of his 
health, was taken seriously ill after he left Bethlehem, had to return 
and on September 6, passed away at the Sun Inn. In accordance 
with his special request his remains were interred in the Bethlehem 
cemetery. The diary notes the interesting fact that sixty years 
before, he had worked as an apprentice at boat-building on the 
Lehigh at Bethlehem. On July 3 of that same year, the venerable 
Bishop Jacob Van Vleck departed this life. He had continued to be 
the Proprietor of the estates of the Church until, on December 4, 
1829, he was persuaded, in view of his feebleness and the pre- 
carious condition of affairs, to make a general deed to the Adminis- 
trator, the Rev. L. D. deSchweinitz, who then constituted the son 
of the previous Proprietor, the Rev. WilHam Henry Van Vleck, his 
heir and thus the next in the succession of Proprietors. Following 
upon all of the depressing circumstances, came a severe blow in the 
sudden death of deSchweinitz on February 4, 1834. Bearing the 
brunt of the difficulties, and relied upon by all for leadership, it 
seemed as if none could so ill be spared just then. His health had 
been failing for some time, but none were expecting his sudden 
departure. He was greatl)^ mourned throughout the Church, and his 
wide reputation in the scientific world as a botanist of distinguished 
rank, caused his death to attract much public attention. Eugene A. 
Frueauff, a son of the Rev. John Frederick Frueaufif, had been assist- 
ing him and now took temporary charge of the business of the 
Administration, in consultation with the Rev. John Gottlieb Herman, 
Principal of Nazareth Hall, one of the executors of deSchweinitz's 
estate, along with Warden Stadiger, of Bethlehem ; the Rev. John C. 
Bechler, President of the Provincial Board at Salem, N. C. ; the Rev. 
Theodore Shultz, the Administrator at that place — deSchweinitz 
having been also the Proprietor of the Wachovia lands — and the 
Rev. W. H. Van Vleck, who now became Proprietor. On Sept em- 



654 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ber Z'j, 1834, the Rev. Philip Henry Goepp arrived from Europe to 
assume the office of Administrator. 

To preserve the connection of leading officials, it may be men- 
tioned, furthermore, that on March 21, 1827, Bishop Hueffel, whose 
wife died in December, 1824, left Bethlehem to return to Europe, 
where he became a member of the Unity's Elders' Conference. 
Bishop John Daniel Anders arrived from Europe on March 29, 1828, 
to take his place as President of the Provincial Board. He assumed, 
temporarily, the duties of the Head Pastor at Bethlehem after the 
death of deSchweinitz. The other members of the pastoral corps 
were the Rev. C. F. Seidel, Principal, and the Rev. J. F. Frueauff, 
who, after an interval of absence in Europe, resumed this connection 
in November, 1835, and continued in his old age to render assistance 
until his sudden death, November 14, 1839, at an inn eighteen miles 
.from Bethlehem, on the way to Philadelphia. 

The turmoil of the previous few years had, to a great extent, 
abated when the Rev. Philip H. Goepp entered upon the difficult 
duties of his office as Administrator, in September, 1834, but the 
financial burdens and the inherent problems of the situation 
remained. Upon him devolved the task of directing the course of 
development which his eminent predecessor had prepared for. 

Now came the second important epoch of this transition period 
with which distinct forward movements are associated. This was 
the advent of the era of public schools. During the preceding six 
years, two special efforts had been made to give the boys' school of 
the village a more satisfactory character. On January 14, 1830, a 
meeting of citizens, with John Warner as President and John Oerter 
as Secretary, appointed Charles F. Beckel, Timothy Weiss and John 
Oerter a committee to report a plan of improvement. Their report 
was adopted at another meeting on the 19th, and submitted to the 
Elders' Conference of the village, who appointed eleven men to 
further take the matter in hand. Consultations were held and inter- 
views were had with Jacob Kummer and David Schneller, teachers 
of the first and second divisions of the school respectively, and some 
minor measures in the direction desired were taken, but nothing very 
decided resulted from the effort. George Fetter, who at intervals 
engaged in some lines of special teaching, removed to Lancaster in 
1830. His wife had been keeping the primary school, and there 
were now two applicants for the position. One was the wife of the 
■old organist, John Christian Till. The other was Mrs. Christ, wife 
of Matthew Christ, who in April of that year retired from the man- 



1826 1845- <J5S 

agement of the Sun Inn. The school was entrusted to Mrs. Christ. 
Subsequently its enlargement and division brought her husband, a 
former Nazareth Hall teacher, also into requisition, and thus two of 
the most prominent and capable Bethlehem school-teachers of that 
period came upon the scene. Matters then ran on until 1834, when 
agitation began anew, perhaps under the stimulus of general popular 
discussion on the subject of common schools. A meeting of fathers, 
guardians and masters, on Ma}^ 26, 1834, referred the problem of 
school improvement to a new committee consisting of Dr. Abraham 
L. Huebener, President; James T. Borhek, Secretary; John M. 
Miksch, John F. Ranch, C. A. I.uckenbach, Charles C. Tombler and 
Abraham x\ndreas. Sundry meetings followed, at which many sug- 
gestions were discussed, most prominentl}' a scheme for re-organiz- 
ing the school laid before the committee by Jedediah Weiss. A 
proposition of the committee sustained by some others, to increase 
tuition fees in order to meet the main difficulty, that of trying to get 
good work for poor pay, encountered opposition on the part of those 
who were in favor of improving everything but the salaries ; being 
more pretentious than liberal, and wedded to the old idea, so hard 
to eradicate among many of the people brought up in a Moravian 
village, that, somehow, the authorities must provide them with the 
"best to be had at little or no cost to themselves. 

Another interesting feature was that, while at Bethlehem the boys' 
school, as compared with that of the girls, was continually regarded 
as unsatisfactory, at Nazareth the girls' school was the cause of com- 
plaint, while no fault was found with that of the boys. The reason 
was clearh^ the presence of the boarding-schools with their superior 
standard and equipment — the day-school for girls at Bethlehem 
iDeing combined with the Seminary and that for boys at Nazareth 
with Nazareth Hall, in the grades above the primary out of which, 
in both cases, the children passed into the day-school departments of 
these institutions. It must be borne in mind, however, that even 
when the most reason was found for declaring these schools unsat- 
isfactorv, thev were so, not by comparison with like schools of that 
time at neighboring points, for they were very decidedly better, even 
at their worst, than these usually were at their best. They were 
unsatisfactorv by comparison with the standards had in mind by 
people of a Moravian village, with superior schools as a tradition 
of the placp. The schools of some neighborhoods were quite satis- 
factory to the majority, even if kept only three months in a year by 
a person barelv able to teach reading, writing and a little "ciphering." 



656 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The boys' school, in two departments, with Kuminer and 
SchneUer in charge as before, was continued, together with the pri- 
mary school combined with a department of private instruction for 
some boys from the neighborhood, in charge of Christ and his wife, 
and the girls' day-school adjunct of the Young Ladies' Seminary. 
Some internal improvements in methods, arrangements and text- 
books, and a general toning up resulted from these consultations, 
and the contract with the County Commissioners to provide tuition 
to poor children of the neighborhood within a given radius, at the 
rate of two to two and a half cents per day each, that seems to have 
existed since 1828, was also continued to 1836, as well as the pro- 
visions to accommodate for a stipulated amount, boys from the 
country whose parents wished them to enjoy better advantages than 
any other schools within reach could offer. On September 3, 1834,. 
a new School Board was elected, consisting, in the order given in the 
record, of Dr. Abraham L. Huebener, John M. Miksch, Timothy 
Weiss, Owen Rice, John F. Ranch and James T. Borhek, with the 
Head Pastor, the Associate Minister and the Warden as ex officio 
members. Thus things stood when the Public School era opened at 
Bethlehem. 

In December, 1831, the Governor of Pennsylvania, George Wolf — 
whom Northampton County has the honor of counting, as the 
"father of common schools" in the State, among its native citizens — 
advocated, in his annual message, the establishment of a system of 
free common schools supported by taxation. The result proved 
that the time had come when this long-cherished scheme of some 
broadly-thinking men could be initiated. The desired action was 
taken by the Legislature in 1834. Although opponents used this 
public-spirited step against Wolf in demagogic agitation among the 
ignorant, the parsimonious and the narrowly sectarian, the effort 
made by these elements to pack the Legislature for the purpose of 
reversing the action failed ; Wolf's successor, Governor Joseph 
Ritner, sustained the position taken, and the structure of Pennsyl- 
vania's Public School System arose on the foundation then laid. 
The act creating the Bethlehem School District, identical in extent 
with the Election District, and authorizing the levying and collection 
of school-taxes and the election of District School Directors, was 
approved, April i, 1836. The first Board of Directors elected, April 
29, consisted of James T. Borhek, Abraham L. Huebener, John M. 
Miksch, John F. Ranch, Owen Rice and Charles C. Tombler. All 
excepting the last-named had been members of the previous village 



1826 1845- 657 

School Board. They organized, April 30, by electing Owen Rice, 
President; Dr. Huebener, Secretary, and 'Squire Ranch, Treasurer. 
On May 27, at a meeting of the citizens of the School District, it 
was decided "to raise, for the current year, a sum, in addition to that 
determined on by the Delegate Meeting, equal in amount to the 
County Tax for the present year." This first school-tax in the dis- 
trict amounted to $469.79. John C. Warner was appointed collector 
at a commission of $8.00. In December, the board "resolved to 
employ Margaret Opitz, at a yearly salary of $8.00, to sweep the 
school rooms twice a week." At a later meeting, the services of 
"Gretel" were thought to be worth more and, the following Febru- 
ary, her salary was raised to $10.00. 

The re-organization of the day-schools had finally amounted, 
therefore, simply to converting them from parish-schools with the 
ecclesiastico-municipal authorities controlhng them, and the clergy, 
of course, ex officio members of the School Board, into District 
Schools under the Pennsylvania school-law, with a Board of Direc- 
tors elected by the citizens of the School District, as such, in accord- 
ance with the provisions of the law. That the change was decidedly 
beneficial, under the circumstances which then existed, cannot be 
questioned, although many were opposed to it. This opposition was 
of two kinds. Some, taking into account the established principles 
of education in a Moravian village, combining secular and religious 
instruction and churchly training, had exaggerated visions of secu- 
larizing influences and of drift away from all cherished associations. 
While some of those who had urged the change undoubtedly 
regarded with favor this prospect of an additional breach in the old 
village system which they impatiently wished to see broken up more 
rapidly, such fears were needless, for all that was important in the 
relation between church and school remained under the arrange- 
ments of those first years. Bible instruction, general religious 
instruction and distinctly Moravian Church instruction by the pas- 
tors continued as before. Even such features of a Parochial School 
as the regular attendance of the scholars, in a body, at the public 
service on Sunday and at the various special services in which they 
were in the habit of participating, did not disappear. Nothing in the 
school laws interfered, at that early stage, with things like these, and, 
as the village was yet so exclusively one of Moravians that no other 
element weighed, the continuance of such local features was taken 
for granted by common consent. The other kind of opposition was 

43 ■ 



658 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

that of persons who objected to the introduction of a law which 
compelled them to pay for the support of the schools whether they 
had children to be educated or not. When, in 1834, the nerve of the 
situation was touched by the proposition to increase tuition fees, and 
the improvements clamored for halted before the opposition to this 
indispensable condition, the enlightened and enterprising part of the 
community moved energetically for the creation of the School 
District, to bring the new school law to bear upon such, constraining 
them to do for the support of their school what they could not be 
induced to do voluntarily; and at the same time to get a just share 
of state appropriations in order to meet the further lack of local 
resources that really did exist at that time, and thus properly provide 
also for free school in the District to the extent required. That a 
decided majority of those who had children soon saw the improve- 
ment in the schools, as thus re-organized, and were sincerely inter- 
ested in their efficiency, is shown by the laudable fact that school was 
regularly kept the entire year from the first, excepting the customary 
vacation of, at most, two weeks after the mid-summer examinations ; 
and that when the revenue from the regular school tax and the state 
appropriation, according to the arrangement of that time, did not 
suffice, they made up the balance voluntarily, and all the children of 
the District, without any discrimination, enjoyed the benefit. Beth- 
lehem was surrounded by neighborhoods in which, at that time, it 
was a rare thing to find a school open six months in the year. 

The first report rendered to the State Superintendent, January 9, 
1837, gives the average number of scholars enrolled in the three 
schools or rather departments, up to that time, as a hundred and 
twenty-five. These departments were the school for boys taught by 
Jacob Kummer, that for boys and girls taught by Matthew Christ 
and his wife with various assistants at intervals, from 1836 to 1845, 
such as Mrs. Theodora Beear, a daughter of the former Adminis- 
trator Cunow, and twenty years a teacher, and the Misses Henry, 
Caroline Warner, Sarah Eberman, Josephine Leibert, Sarah Rice 
and Elizabeth Weiss — the last-named, now the widow of the Rev. 
Francis Wolle, being the only one of them yet living — and the day- 
school department for girls connected with the Seminary in charge of 
John Gottlob Kummer, Principal, into which girls were statedly 
advanced from Mr. and Mrs. Christ's school under a contract made 
by the District School Directors with that institution for $150 a 
year. The total paid on account of salaries, including this sum, the 
first year, was $750. The only other expense was about $4.50 for 



1826 1845- 659 

fuel. The school-rooms, of course, cost the Directors nothing and 
some necessary equipments were purchased by the warden at various 
times or procured through private contributions. The first state 
appropriations were $45.59 in 1836 and $129.48 in 1837. From the 
■eounty was received $136.77. These amounts with the first year's 
district tax, $469.79, and other receipts, $10.34, made a total income 
of $792.15. In May, 1837, the district tax was fixed at "fifteen cents 
per $100 on occupation and three cents per $100 on other subjects 
of taxation." 

In June of that year, the department in charge of Jacob Kummer, 
which then contained only fifteen boys, was eliminated and the Direc- 
tors contracted with Christs to take charge of all the children in the 
District, excepting the thirty-four girls attending the Seminary as 
day-scholars. At the close of the year there were 106 scholars 
in their school and it was reported to be in a highly satisfactory 
condition. In June, 1838, it became necessary, for the first time, 
to restrict the admission to boys and girls from five to four- 
teen years of age. Another important institution had been added 
to the school accommodations, which the Directors mentioned 
with gratification in their second annual report to the State 
.Superintendent — an institution remembered with peculiar apprecia- 
tion by its few surviving pupils. In June, 1837, Ernst Frederick 
Bleck, who had passed through the regular course at Nazareth Hall 
and in the Theological Seminary of the Church and spent five years 
as a teacher at the Hall — a man of marked ability and varied attain- 
ments, opened a private school at Bethlehem for the more advanced 
education of boys who either wished to enter business life or to pre- 
pare for special professional studies or for a general classical course 
at college. Men at Bethlehem had encouraged this undertaking and 
privately guaranteed him a satisfactory salary and school-room for 
one year. Thus, with sixteen boys in a room on the first floor of the 
boys' school house, commenced "Bleck's Academy," which was sub- 
sequently quartered in the "Till house" — a part of the former great 
"barn on Main Street — purchased for $1,800. It was, for a few years, 
the most popular and successful school of the kind for boys in the 
Lehigh Valley. The curriculum embraced, besides a solid and 
thorough course in the regular English branches similar to that at 
Nazareth Hall, instruction in higher mathematics, Latin, Greek, 
French, German, surveying, double-entry book-keeping, drafting, 
free-hand drawing, musical instruction, including lessons on the 
organ, piano-forte and 'cello — in the use of which latter instrument 



66o A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Bleck was specially proficient — and courses of illustrated lec- 
tures on various subjects, particularly astronomy and chemistry, on 
which branches he compiled a manual for his own use from the best 
authorities. The pupils of the Young Ladies' Seminary and the 
people of the town occasionally shared the benefit of these lectures. 
For a few years the District School Directors also contracted with 
him to accommodate boys who passed beyond the limit fixed for Mr. 
Christ's school. Mr. Bleck continued to conduct the Academy until 
June, 1851, when he sold the property and good will to Benjamin 
VanKirk, to whom there will be further reference in the next chapter. 
When, with all this, it is had in mind that the Moravian Theological 
Seminary had been moved to Bethlehem from Nazareth in May, 
1838, as mentioned in the preceding chapter — the institution was 
domiciled in "the William Luckenbach house" on Broad Street — it 
will be apparent that educational activity was flourishing at that 
period. It would indeed seem primitive and in many features crude 
if compared to the present body of institutions and their work, but 
men of learning and ability were in charge, and when viewed amid 
the conditions of that time — and this is the only intelligent and fair 
way to judge anything — the school situation at Bethlehem then was 
one which those yet living who enjoyed its advantages need not be 
ashamed of, even if the fhppantl}? disposed would see only the crudi- 
ties and defects of the picture and the things to be amused at. 

An important vote was taken at Bethlehem on May 5, 1840. "A 
meeting of the qualified citizens residing within the bounds of the 
Bethlehem Town School District" was held, with Jedediah Weiss as 
President and the Secretary of the School Board, John Schropp, as 
Secretary, "for the purpose of deciding by ballot whether the Common 
School System should be continued in said District or not, 'agreeably 
to the directions of the thirteenth section of an Act to consolidate 
and amend the several Acts, relative to a general System of Education 
by Common Schools,' passed, June 13, 1836." The majority being in 
favor, it was settled that it should be continued for the ensuing three 
years. This was the point at which the Public Schools at Bethlehem 
ceased to be regarded as an experiment. After the election of that 
summer, the Board of Directors were Owen Rice, Dr. A. L. Huebener, 
Charles F. Beckel, George W. Dixon, John Schropp, John M. Miksch. 
In October, John C. Brickenstein was chosen to fill the vacancy 
caused by the death of John Schropp. The further development of 
the school system in the State brought the time when subsidies to 
existing institutions and combinations with ecclesiastical or private 



1 826 1845. 661 

schools ceased. This point came at Bethlehem after the closing 
examinations, the last week in June, 1844. Then, although an appor- 
tionment of district school tax continued some years, the blending 
of the District School and the Parochial School was at an end. The 
latter was re-organized in accordance with action of a Congregation 
Council on June 7, when Charles F. Beckel, Wm. Eberman, C. A. 
Luckenbach, W. T. Roepper and J. F. Wolle were elected as the 
School Board. On July 22, it was re-opened under this board, elected 
by voting members of the Moravian Church as such, and not by 
citizens of the School District as such, with the Head Pastor, the 
Associate Minister and the Warden again ex officio members, as prior 
to 1836. The District School, deprived thus of numerical strength 
and of a certain caste and prestige with which it had been ushered in, 
entered upon a season of struggle to attain efficiency and standing 
in the community; for a number of years elapsed before that part 
of the population which sent children to the Public Schools instead 
of the Parochial School, the Young Ladies' Seminary or private 
schools, had grown to such numbers and influence and been infused 
with such intelligent zeal for the advancement of the "schools for all 
the people," that the time of their ascendency set in. 

The school-period which has thus been sketched was one of enthus- 
iastic interest and well organized effort in music at Bethlehem. The 
new musical association of 1820, long known as the Philharmonic 
Society, reached its zenith during this period. The orchestral prac- 
ticing, which prior to 1814 had, as a rule, taken place in the old 
Brethren's House, was then, by permission, transferred to the room 
in the church where the archives are now stored, and when the 
school-house at the corner of the green on Cedar Street was finished 
in 1822, to the second story of that building which the musicians kept 
possession of until it was needed for school purposes. In 1827, the 
Old Chapel, which, since the dedication of the church had been used 
for the library of the Congregation, was remodeled to adapt it for 
concerts and various school functions, as well as for Divine service 
on special occasions, and the library was transferred to one of the 
rooms at the east end of the church. It was thus used as a place of 
worship, the first time for twenty-one years, on July i, 1827. There 
the Philharmonic Society now established its headquarters and for 
man)' years that historic and venerable sanctuary was spoken of, even 
officially, as "the concert hall." The indignity suggested by this term 
did not, however, exist in the music there produced, for this was 
almost exclusively of a strictly classical, elevating and even sacred 



662 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

character. The choral renditions of those days, usually with the full 
instrumentation called for by the score, were undoubtedly an advance 
from the performances, no less enjoyed, of two decades before when, 
amid the bucolic charms of those days, the people of the town were 
wont on Whitmonday to follow, in boats or afoot along the bank, 
the slowly-moving "flat" up the Lehigh, listening to the chords of 
the unique Wasserfahrt — Boat-ride — performed by the players of wind 
instruments on board — the boatman's horn on the canal was the only 
echo that remained of it at the time now treated of — but the musical 
forces of Bethlehem had been trained, even from those days, to work 
at the productions of Haydn and other superior composers, and it 
was no sudden leap to mastering and rendering the "Creation," the 
"Seasons," the "Seven Sleepers," and such compositions. It may 
be that, even at this period of higher proficiency here in mind, the 
modern technical critic would have hatcheled them with strictures in 
the stock terms of that professional cant which all kinds of critics 
cultivate in their several departments and which in some of its 
phrases often passes the lay understanding, but the Bethlehem 
musicians were not worried with nervous dread of this, for the critics 
were not abroad in such abundance then as now. They did their 
best for the pure love of it. That they surpassed anything that people 
were accustomed to hear in those days, excepting the occasional 
attainments, in some features, of the best musical organizations the 
cities could then produce, may be safely assumed. The acme of the 
period was a complete rendition, in the church, on Whitmonday, in 
1839, of "The Creation" — at different times more modestly performed 
since its first partial production in 1811 — by a hundred and twenty- 
five participants ; the Bethlehem choralists and instrumentalists being 
re-enforced from Nazareth, Easton and Allentown. After that, 
nothing so elaborate was attempted. A reaction followed this 
achievement. In 1840 that well-remembered man of varied attain- 
ments in science and art, literature and affairs, William Theodore 
Roepper, came to Bethlehem from Neuwied on the Rhine, a famous 
seat of Moravian education, where he had been an instructor in 
various departments. He possessed commanding musical ability and 
put forth energetic efforts to prevent Bethlehem's musical association 
from languishing, but that it must experience its ebb and flow lik,« 
all other lines of united or organized interest was inevitable. Some 
of the men who then played instruments, and some, both women and 
men, who sang, such as he who later was known as "Father Weiss" 
— Jedediah Weiss, facile princcps among bassos, when at his best. 




JEDEDIAH WEISS ERNST LEWIS LEHMAN 

JOHN CHRISTIAN TILL 

ERNST FREDERICK BLECK WILLIAM THEODORE ROEPPER 



1826 i84S- 665 

almost anywhere that he might go — would be a welcome acquisition 
to orchestra and chorus in Bethlehem, even in these days of far 
greater things in music than would have been possible sixty years 
ago. Bach's Mass in B Minor would hardly have been attempted 
then, but some of those men and women, if they were here yet, in 
their best powers, would respond efHciently to a leadership that can 
make such an undertaking a success. 

The meagre authentic records that exist in reference to the culti- 
vation of military music and whatever else may be loosely classed 
under the term "band music," afford very little in the way of exact 
data. The evolution of what is popularly styled "the band," with only 
wind instruments and principally the class of music just referred to, 
in mind, was a protracted and, in its early stages, rather nebulous 
process. It is easy to understand that, under the conditions and 
regulations existing at Bethlehem until well into the second decade 
of the nineteenth century, a band, in the popular acceptation of the 
term, was an institution, not to be looked for even though there was 
much cultivation of instrumental music. The traditional "trombone 
choir" does not come into consideration in this connection, for it 
was strictly a feature of the musical equipment of the church, as it is 
today. Its instruments have always been regarded as devoted to 
ecclesiastical use, even the exceptions to this being on occasions when 
hymn-tunes and, beyond these, only oratorio parts in concert or 
patriotic airs of dignified and hallowed associations are performed. 
Noble indeed has been the place and function of the trombone choir. 
Their services have always been connected with inspiring and solemn 
religious festivities, while with their most frequent and familiar duty, 
calling them up to the belfry of the church at any hour of any day, 
to pour down in the morning or evening stillness or upon the mid-day 
bustle and noise of the street, the mellow strains of the significant 
three chorales, and then several days later to accompany the sequel 
of what those tunes from the belfry told the listener, at a new-made 
grave in the "God's acre," thoughts most holy and memories exceed- 
ing tender are associated. 

The germ with which the evolution of the band — or to make a more 
bald distinction from orchestra and trombone choir, in the common 
parlance of modern times, the "brass band" — started, at Bethlehem, 
seems to have been the equipment of clarionets, horns and bassoons 
formed in 1809 by that musical genius, David Moritz Michael, in 
order to produce his river music, the Wasserfahrt, already referred 
to. That was probably the most secular sort of music indulged in. 



664 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

up to that time, at Bethlehem, unless perhaps stealthily by some not 
always staid musicians inside the walls of the Brethren's House. But 
soon desire and courage grew in this direction, as the weakening 
restraints in the matter of militia drill .tempted young men to turn 
out on Battalion Day, and some time in that very year a Bethlehem 
Band came into existence, called, for a while, the "Columbia Band," 
which entered into agreement to furnish music for the 97th Regiment 
of Pennsylvania Militia. It acquired recognized standing and not 
only grew from twelve to twenty-four members, but, during the 
subsequent years of its chequered career, enrolled a number of promi- 
nent names in the musical records of Bethlehem, notably such names 
as Till, Weiss, Ricksecker, Beckel and Luch, among its performers 
and many, otherwise prominent, among its supporting members. 
Then followed, in 1839, an attempt to form a "brass band," strictly 
speaking, which the other organization through successive changes 
had not been, but it does not seem to have flourished. In 1845, the 
year to which this chapter runs, a more successful effort was made, 
with a prior organization that had played reed instruments, as a 
nucleus. A full set of brass instruments of newer fashion were 
secured, and then the later famous "Beckel's Band" emerged into 
articulate being and lived through the following decade. While a 
wide distinction is to be made, as before pointed out, between band 
and trombone choir, the men who did duty in the latter, in those days, 
were usually members of the former also ; such as the patriarchal 
group whose picture is familiar, Jacob Till, Charles F. Beckel and 
Jedediah Weiss, with the instrument that had been played by their 
departed companion, Timothy Weiss, also on the picture. At that 
time (1845) appears also the name of another in the roster, both of 
band and trombone choir — one who alone remains of those who then 
figured, and after more than fifty years of consecutive service is now 
the patriarch of the trombonists and indeed of Bethlehem musicians 
— Ambrose H. Rauch, who came to Bethlehem from Lititz and, along 
with other enterprises, established the well-known bakery and confec- 
tionery at the site of the historic Beckel farm house. He and Simon 
Rau are the sole survivors of the men who, as voting citizens, partici- 
pated in the municipal, industrial and ecclesiastical activities of Beth- 
lehem before the close of the period included in this chapter. The 
one other, their senior by a few years, who lived bevond the time of 
the town's sesqui-centennial, Henry B. Luckenbach, departed this 
life in 1901. Another contemporary yet living, the former missionary. 
Gilbert Bishop, who was born and passed his youth at Bethlelicm. 



1826 i84S- 665 

was living elsewhere at the time here had in mind, and did not become 
a resident of his native place again until some years later. 

Renewed agitation of various other changes set in with the spread 
of the larger public feeling which possessed many under the stimulus 
of the new school era. There was a growing desire to become a 
different kind of a town in other particulars also. In the municipal 
arrangements a quiet, gradual approach towards an organization 
distinct from the ecclesiastical establishment was in progress. Even 
as early as the close of 1819, when the plan of streets reported by 
Administrator Cunow, Jacob Kummer and Samuel Steup — the village 
engineer corps appointed by the voters of the place in council 
assembled — was adopted, a succession of more distinct functionaries 
than had formerly held office of the kind were emerging into promi- 
nence, combining the duties of street supervisor, chief of police and 
health officer. At one time there were two serving jointly, like 
Jonathan Bishop and John Christian Kern, who, in 1821, found the 
thankless task onerous and begged to be excused. Then, for a 
season, "one-man power" was embodied in the position. Augustus 
Milchsack was a prominent incumbent for some years. He had to 
oversee work on the highways, protect them from encroachments in 
the shape of building material, fire-wood and the like, and keep them 
clear of straying cattle and swine ; had to guard against such viola- 
tions of village ordinances by careless people, as endangered health 
and safety or lowered the standard of neatness and cleanliness for 
which the place was famous ; had also to supervise disbursements 
from the municipal treasury — Buergerliche Kasse — differentiated by 
degrees from the congregation diacony and maintained by village 
taxation. He received the title of Burgomaster. Cumulative respon- 
sibilities and dignities crystalized about the office until, in many a 
little thing, the incumbent shared honors with that more powerful 
official, the Warden, in being dreaded by the delinquent and the 
transgressing and courted by the dependent and by those who were 
wanting something. There were also the "Tax Board" and the 
Overseers of the Poor who, with the Burgomaster and other function- 
aries, were, under the latest village regulations, chosen in the month 
of January each year by the voters of the place in Gemeinrath or 
Congregation Council, which in the latter days of the transition 
period had, on such occasions, more the character of a citizens' town- 
meeting than that of a meeting of church members. Reports, financial 
and otherwise, were rendered on municipal affairs at such meetings 
-and were discussed. Thus the Burgomaster and the other village 



666 



A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 



officials associated with him, foreshadowed the coming Burgess 
and Town Council, as a kind of municipal government in training, to 
which the Warden and that venerable body, the Supervising Board 
{Aiif seller Collegium) delegated functions and routine duties. Besides 
these were also the Postmaster, Justices and Notaries, with whose 
appointment the Elders' Conference as such had nothing to do. The 




cu 






^<\^ n ^Siv 



village also had its fire department and its water department, in no 
way under their official control. There was more of the machinery 
of village organization not subject to that board of clergy than is 
commonly understood, under the erroneous popular supposition that 
the change from church-village to borough was a sudden crisis. 

The matter of improving and extending the water service was one 
that occasioned frequent deliberations from year to year, the lack of 
funds being a continual embarrassment. From 1825 to 1829, at 
intervals, the laying of iron pipes, instead of wooden ones as formerly. 



1826 1845. 667 

or leaden ones also experimented with, which had been commenced 
as early as 1813, was continued. In 1826, this more durable con- 
nection was completed to the stand pipe on Market Street, the 
octagonal stone tower of 1803 a little east of the corner of Cedar 
Street, which stood until 1832. Then the new reservoir on the 
higher ground, north of Broad Street and east of New Street, added 
to that of 1817, on Market Street, with the smaller ones at the 
apothecary shop, 1805, and that on Church Street, 1806, which 
remained for many years, rendered it needless. In 1830, the extension 
of the pipes up Main Street and along a portion of Broad Street was 
completed. In 183 1, that excellent and well-located building, the 
oil-mill, was secured to contain the new pump put in by the water 
committee in 1832, in order to meet the increasing demand, while the 
grinding of oat and buckwheat meal was yet continued in part of it; 
these products acquiring a high reputation under Charles David 
Bishop, the lessee, 1835-1847, who twenty-five years before had man- 
aged the combination industry in that mill for the Brethren's House 
Diacony — a reputation sustained in later years under the management 
of his son who is yet living, the venerable Gilbert Bishop, so that long 
after he had to vacate in 1874, because the entire building was needed 
for the water works, city dealers continued to plume themselves with 
the oat and buckwheat meal alleged to have been ground there, as a 
specialty, and report has it that, even yet, some are advertising the 
"celebrated Bethlehem buckwheat flour." The water supply contin- 
ued to be in charge of such a water committee until the incorporation, 
in 1845, of the "Bethlehem Water Company," which, in 1871, sold 
out to the Borough, when this important department of municipal 
service again passed under the control of a "water committee." 

As regards the fire department, the several years after the free- 
school epoch were a time of revived interest in improving its 
equipment. Three companies figure in a somewhat confused group. 
The "Perseverance" was domiciled in the little frame house built 
in 1819, on Main Street at the opening of the alley named after 
Administrator Cunow; for it ran along the rear of his official 
premises. The "Diligence" had its quarters, after 1820, on Main 
Street, just north of the old stone "Economy House" in the narrow 
frame structure in which a long-familiar stove and tin-ware store is 
kept — the second building above the Moravian Publication House. 

But now emerges, in 1838, the new "Reliance" company on Broad 
Street. The old Perseverance, the original company of 1762, with its 
famous old engine, seems to have grown clfete and to have actually 



668 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

become defunct about 1838; but it took a new lease of life ten years 
later, with the historic engine, whose claim to be the oldest in the 
United States has never been disproven, repaired and again made 
serviceable. The Diligence was the survival of the company formed 
in 1792, by married men, with the smaller hand-engine — "das Butter- 
fass" — of that time — for some years its quarters were a shed, near 
the mortuary chamber in front of the Old Chapel — while the single 
men with the original engine had perpetuated the Perseverance. 

Fortunately, in consequence of the strict discipline and intelligent 
observance of good order always maintained, Bethlehem had, up to 
this time, seldom suffered from serious fires. 

Some further steps were also taken during those several years in 
extricating the congregation diacony from burdensome entangle- 
ments with business concerns ; disposing of properties to reduce its 
heavy indebtedness to private creditors and to the Administrator, 
as agent of the Unity's Wardens, and, in general, getting the finances 
into a shape better prepared for the pending changes. Some fortunate 
sales of valuable property outside of Bethlehem, which affected the 
general situation, were made by Administrator Goepp, in pursuance 
of a policy which his predecessor, de Schweinitz, had in view, opposite 
to that of Cunow twenty years before — the policy of gradually 
converting much of the real estate into cash in order to pay off heavy 
debts and stop drains for interest which, in some instances, more than 
equaled the income from the corresponding properties, and, at the 
same time, bring the holdings of real estate within the Hmits that 
would be required to secure legal incorporation when the time should 
come for this step. One of these sales which deserves mention on 
account of its prominence and historic associations, was that of Gnad- 
enthal, after long consideration and protracted negotiations, to the 
Northampton County Commissioners of the Poor in June, 1837, as the 
location of the County Poor House. The financial advantage appears 
in the statement on record that the interest on the money derived 
from the sale of a little more than 235 acres of that property at $90 
per acre — only ten acres more than half of the original farm, would 
be more than the rent received for the whole, leased to George 
Schlabach four years before. Some, even in official circles, were 
strongly in favor, in 1837, of not only embracing opportunitic'S to 
sell large tracts immediately around Bethlehem, especially on the 
south side of the river, but also of abolishing the lease-system in 
the town without further ado ; making ground rents redeemable, 
as well as putting an end to the necessity of buying more houses^ in 




CALYPSO ISLAND, 1R50 



i826 1845. 669 

order to keep control of the properties, and thus reheving the Con- 
gregation of the heavy burden it was bearing. The indebtedness to 
the General Wardens of the Unity had grown enormously since 1830, 
and that owing individual creditors was almost as great. But the 
veiry relations this state of things created between Bethlehem and 
the general board in Europe hindered steps towards bringing the 
Bethlehem property under the control of a legal corporation; and as 
the abolition of the lease system, involving so much, could not be 
ventured until the right point of understanding between them was 
reached from which the processes preparatory to incorporation could 
be instituted, a further conservative and cautious course was pursued 
and yet more time was taken for getting ready. 

Meanwhile the strain was relieved somewhat by sundry sales of 
smaller parcels, here and there, and by disposing of several more 
establishments. The earlier sale of the grist-mill and tannery, 
already referred to, was followed by the transfer of the saw-mill, in 
1835, to Lewis Doster who, in 1826, had leased the dyeing and fulling- 
mill which, before that, had been conducted by Matthew Eggert, and 
which the new possessor then transferred to the saw-mill site. Out 
of this combination, when a few years later he purchased the property, 
he built up a flourishing business, developing the manufacture of 
woolen goods to an extent that led to the erection of the additional 
larger building on the north side of the canal at the lock, in 1850, 
— destroyed by fire but quickly rebuilt in 1862 — where for a numberof 
years the products of the Monocacy Woolen Mills, later the Moravian 
Woolen Mills, that won public reputation, were turned out. Thus 
were perpetuated industrial associations of the Sand Island and the 
Monocacy banks at the foot of the hill, in a connection of activities 
which had existed already in the days of the General Economy, when 
the proximity of bleacher}", soap-boiling factory and laundr}' to the 
saw-mill, near which the flax-house of the linen-weavers was built 
and the first sheep of Bethlehem, growing wool for the carders and 
spinners, grazed, brought about a relation between timber and textile 
products there manipulated. Furthermore, even before the modern 
revival of those associations by Lewis Doster, buildings and machin- 
ery for turning out products from the mineral kingdom in addition 
to those from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, had also been 
erected on the Sand Island when, after the completion of the canal in 
1829, Charles F. Beckel who since 1825, had — though first a watch- 
maker by trade — ^been operating the little iron foundry on Main 
Street started by Joseph Miksch, moved the establishment to a site on 



670 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

that island near the lock, where for many years the Beckel foundry 
flourished as the pioneer of all iron industries along the Lehigh at 
Bethlehem. Even in their features of deterioration those precincts 
are historic, in a down-grade continuity, from the time, in the first 
decade of the nineteenth century, when, on Independence Day, the 
hilarious patriotism of certain young and old men led them to respond 
to a few toasts too many with a potion somewhat lusty, to the time 
when the old laundry was made to do duty in honor of Gambrinus 
and was dubbed "Noah's Ark ;" and then on to the time when the 
woolen-mill had long disappeared, and the flames belched forth no 
more from the cupola of Beckel's foundry and, even at the older and 
yet existing establishment where the combination of wood and cloth 
has changed to that of wood and paint, the sound of the saw was heard 
only at irregular intervals, and at the canal a greatly debased repro- 
duction of the "Ark," under other names like the "Little Item," shed 
bad odor about the vicinity. It is well that a present-day owner of 
so much of that historic ground, with sentiments that respect its 
better days treasured in the recollections of youth, has not only 
restored an inviting appearance to the neglected parts of the old 
island, but has revived also the associations of a far earlier and higher 
civilization than that spread about them by the more recent successors 
of the "Ark" under license from the County Court — the civilization 
that dwelt among the Christian Indians of Friedenshuetten along the 
Monocacy in 1746 — by substituting for Sand Island, as names for its 
two sections, the tribal designations of those exiled Moravian Indians 
of New York, Wampanoag and Mohican. 

With the exception of the hotels — and these, as previously stated, 
were now leased, Caleb Yohe taking possession, in 1844, of the Eagle, 
which he finally purchased and for many years conducted — none 
of the few surviving old concerns that had been managed for the 
congregation diacony in former times remained its property when 
Bethlehem became a hundred years old. Without attempting to 
refer to all the business operations, large and small, mostly new, of 
that period — the mercantile establishments that issued from the old 
village store, and the old tinsmith-shop taken by Christian Lucken- 
bach and built up into a business which is still carried on by his 
descendants, having already been alluded to — three may yet be 
specially mentioned because they not only were then among the old 
establishments of the town, but are existing at the present time amid 
the many modern industries with which they are surrounded. One 
was that which supplied the people of Bethlehem with meat. This 




MOUNTAIN PATH ALONG THE LEHIGH 
THE SPRING 



1826 1845- 671 

was one of the old industries along the Monocacy which, after 1753, 
when Henry Krause became the head butcher, remained in the 
hands of the family and is at present in possession of the fifth gener- 
ation, in the old "Weinland house'' near the stone bridge, mentioned 
in the preceding chapter, which John Krause, the meat-purveyor of 
the time now under review, took possession of and enlarged as a 
slaughter-house. Another was the book-bindery of Joseph Oerter, 
which he, as the successor of older Bethlehem members of the craft, 
became master of in 1785. He died in 1841, but the business was 
continued by his son, John Oerter, and then by others, and yet 
exists. The third was the historic pharmacy made famous in colo- 
nial times by Dr. Otto. This was the first Bethlehem establishment 
which was sold outright, long before the modern period opened. It 
was purchased of Dr. Eberhard Freitag in 1839 by a young man 
who had been learning under him for a number of years, Simon 
Rau, who is yet living, has his name at the head of the firm that 
owns it, and enjoys the solitary distinction of being the one sur- 
viving business-man of the days before the village celebrated its 
centennial anniversary and passed through the third epoch-making 
experience around which leading events of this chapter center, and 
out of which it finally emerged with a modern borough organization. 
The Bethlehem epoch now approached was one of striking con- 
trasts, during the space of five years, between depressing adversities 
and jubilant celebrations ; desire for change and progress, on the 
one hand, and revived reverence for old-time associations on the 
other ; perturbed conditions amid which business establishments 
were wrecked and accumulations scattered, while, at the same time, 
the foundations of new enterprises and fortunes were laid. These 
contrasting features stand closely grouped in the picture. The 
financial panic, depression of business, general suspension of specie 
payments, contraction of the currency, collapse of speculations 
throughout the country, felt in full force in Pennsylvania — fruit of 
the play of party politics, in their jealousies and bickerings, with the 
national finances, following the expiration of the charter of the 
second Bank of the United States in 1836, constitute the most prom- 
inent elements of the country's history from 1837 to 1844. Just 
when the effects of this crisis were beginning to be seriously felt at 
Bethlehem, as they crept into all lines of business and found their 
way into the afifairs of every store and shop in all corners of the 
country, great local reverses were suddenly caused by one of the 
most disastrous floods that have visited the Lehigh Valley since its 



6/2 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

first settlement. The records refer to the one ahnost as ruinous in 
1786 and that of 1739, which swept away the unfinished first cabin 
of Isaac Martens Ysselstein, tlie nearest neighbor of the Bethlehena 
pioneers, as the only ones l-cnown in the history of tlie valley that 
could be compared with it. 

This great freshet occurred early in January, 1841, and may be 
described by following somewhat closely the record of the Bethle- 
hem church diary. On January 4th and 5th, the degree of cold 
reached eight below zero, Fahrenheit. Then, on the 6th, came a 
sudden rise of temperature, with heavy rain on top of a deep snow 
which melted rapidly and, added to the rain, poured great floods 
of water down over the frozen ground into the Lehigh as well as 
into the Monocacy and other tributaries. The sudden breaking of 
the thick ice up the river caused gorges at many places, which 
increased the overflow. The night from the 7th to the 8th was one 
of much anxiety. Besides the packs of ice, great masses of debris 
— houses, sheds, thousands of logs and fence-rails, canal-boats, 
loaded with coal, torn from their moorings — came down with the 
raging torrent. The entire lowland along the Monocacy and south 
of the river was one wild stream. Boats were brought into requisi- 
tion, along Water Street and in Old South Bethlehem, to convey 
persons out of the upper stories and garrets of houses to places of 
safety, and to rescue such things of most value as could be taken 
out. While engaged in this work, some men came into great peril 
on account of the depth and swiftness of the water and the quantities 
of debris encountered. Among the people rescued from the dwell- 
ings on Water Street was the venerable John Jungmann — son of 
the well-known missionary, John George Jungmann — ninety-two 
years of age, who was taken out of an up-stairs window into a 
boat. The water reached its highest point at four o'clock in the 
morning, "fully twenty feet above low-water mark." In the course 
of the night the rain ceased, the clouds scattered, and the light of 
the moon falling upon the scene, revealed an appalling chaos of 
ruins. A mass of shattered buildings and parts of bridges piled up 
against the Bethlehem bridge subjected it to such a strain that, 
shortly after two o'clock, the structure gave way and was carried, 
with the accumulation of ruins, down the stream, and only the four 
piers, considerably damaged, were left in place. When day broke 
the scene of desolation was first fully realized. The drifting masses 
were piled up in places fifteen feet high and, surging on with the 
rapid current, carried every obstacle before them. The fact is 




fefefc^Jg' " 



1826 1845- 673 

recorded that, while up the country many persons perished, at Beth- 
lehem no lives were lost, but deplorable damage was suffered by 
all in the inundated area. Apart from the destruction of the bridge, 
the greatest pecuniary loss for Bethlehem people was caused at the 
grist-mill, the tannery, the foundry, the lumber-yard and the saw- 
mill; the sufferers being, in the order named, Charles Augustus 
Luckenbach, Joseph and James Leibert, father and son, Charles F. 
Beckel, Timothy Weiss and Lewis Doster. This extraordinary 
visitation was the uppermost theme at the services of Sunday, Janu- 
ary 10, and again on the 17th, when the work of repairing damage 
and clearing away deposits of drift and wreckage was yet in pro- 
gress. The keen sense of the hard blow to material interests at a 
time when none were in a condition to bear it well, was mingled 
with thanksgiving for the preservation of life at Bethlehem amid all 
dangers. 

During the year 1841, affairs dragged heavily. There was an 
appearance of partial recovery from the effects of this local disaster, 
but a feeling of uncertainty pervaded many circles, for the general 
conditions in Pennsylvania were not improving, and at Bethlehem, 
as at many another place, the financial stringency was putting a 
severe strain upon some who were involved beyond their ability to 
secure ready money to keep their operations afloat. While this pre- 
carious state of affairs, more serious because more extensive than 
that of ten years before, was not apparent to many, there were some 
who knew that unless a great general improvement set in suddenly, 
a local crisis ere long was inevitable. The first five months of 1842 
passed without any striking developments and then, for a while, the 
attention of the village was diverted, in a very different direction, to 
preparations for enthusiastic festivity. 

The time drew near for the centennial anniversary of the organi- 
zation of the settlement. The anticipation of this had been awakened 
already at Christmas, 1841, when the memorable occasion of a hun- 
dred years before, that led to the naming of the place, was called 
to mind. Nearly the entire month of June, 1842, was devoted to 
preparations of great range and variety, from the compilation of 
a historical review and suitable offices for the principal services, the 
rehearsal of vocal and instrumental music, the construction of 
elaborate decorations, transparencies and illuminations, down to the 
minutest domestic details of cleaning and garnishing for the recep- 
tion of holiday guests. During the two weeks preceding the great 



6/4 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

festival, the evening services were omitted on account of the exten- 
sive adornments being made in the church. These were all finished 
before the 24th — two thousand feet of festooning and scores of gar- 
lands gracefully swung and looped between chandeliers, twined 
around pillars and run along the paneled fronts of galleries ; floral 
pyramids erected, right and left, on their edges, great masses of 
flowers placed in the windows between flanking green, and various 
inscriptions partly so constructed as to be transparent when the 
lamps and candles burned in the evening. Two columns eighteen 
feet high enwreathed with evergreen, on the right and left of the 
pulpit at the edge of the raised floor on which the table stood, 
supported an arch with the figures 100 ornamentally set in the 
center, while on graceful drapery hanging under the arch, one of the 
inscriptions was arranged with gilded letters. These inscriptions — 
others in the front of the large table of that time and of the galleries 
— were all Scripture texts. They are enumerated in the diary. 
Natttrally, the preparations for the music of the occasion were corre- 
spondingly elaborate and thorough. The selections rendered by the 
choir are all to be found in the printed services arranged by the Rev. 
John G. Herman and the Rev. Charles F. Seidel. The historical 
sketch was compiled by the Rev. Philip H. Goepp. The celebration 
opened with a festal eve service on the evening of Friday, June 24. 
A large body of trombonists ushered in the chief festival day with 
chorales from the belfry of the church. At nine o'clock the people 
assembled to morning prayer. The historical review was read at 
the next service at half past ten. At the lovefeast hour, three o'clock, 
the crowd was so great that the customary meal of fellowship had to 
be dispensed with, the servitors not being able to pass through the 
church, and the service was held without it. At eight o'clock in the 
evening a service was held on the historic "God's acre" of Bethlehem ; 
the liturgical arrangement being an alternation of hymns by the choir 
and the congregation of over two thousand persons gathered under 
the mellow light of more than a thousand colored lanterns. In the 
center stood a pyramid thirty feet high on which were placed a 
hundred lights, while transparencies with appropriate Scripture texts 
were displayed on the four sides of the base. The head pastor, 
Herman and the associate minister, Seidel, officiated at these various 
services, in which both the English and German languages were used. 
On Sunday, the 26th, a service especially for the children was held at 
nine o'clock by the Rev. Peter Wolle, of Lititz. At the service at 
half past ten the Rev. George F. Bahnson, of Lancaster, preached 




MATTHEW KRAUSE JOHN GOTTHOLD HERMAN 

PHILIP HENRY GOEPP 

LEWIS FRANCIS KAMPMANN EUGENE ALEXANDER FRUEAUFF 



1826 1845- 675 

in German. At three o'clock there was EngHsh preaching by the 
Rev. David Bigler, of Philadelphia. At half past seven on Sunday 
evening the festival was closed with an ordination. Four ministers 
who were yet deacons were ordained presbyters. Bishop Benade 
officiated. The men ordained were George F. Bahnson, David 
Bigler, Charles A. Bleck and Philip H. Goepp. 

Earnest efforts were made by the pastors to render this notable 
occasion impressive and edifying in the best sense, and that many 
hearts were stirred by reflection on the noble ideals of church and 
town and of individual life called up by considering the days of old 
and the duties of the days to come, as they were fervently presented, 
cannot be doubted. The lessons of a hundred years of such history 
could hardly remain quite fruitless and the records lead to the con- 
clusion that they did not. 

In connection with this event, the changes in the ministerial 
personnel at Bethlehem, from the last mentioned to the close of the 
period covered by this chapter, may be given. The next, after the 
arrival of the Rev. Philip H. Goepp, in 1834, as Administrator of the 
estates, was the entrance of John Gottlob Kummer upon his duties 
as Principal of the Young Ladies' Seminary, in March, 1836. He 
was formerly connected with the institution as accountant and was 
not an ordained man. He took charge temporarily in place of the 
Rev. C. F. Seidel, while the latter was in Europe attending a General 
Synod, but then remained Principal until his transfer to Lititz, in 
1843. The successor of Bishop Anders as President of the Provincial 
Board, in 1836, was Bishop Andrew Benade, who had formerly been 
connected with the pastorate and principalship at Bethlehem and 
had been a bishop since 1822. He returned to the place after many 
and great changes and with ideas of discipline and control greatly 
modified since the days when he supported the regime represented by 
Cunow. Indeed, as is often the case with one who abandons an 
extreme position, he finally, in his old age, went farther in his dissent 
from what yet remained of the ideas of those days, than many who 
had always been considered dissenters. He became Presiding Bishop 
temporarily, but then remained at the head of the Executive Board 
until his final retirement in 1848. For a while after his return to 
Bethlehem he also filled the position of head pastor until the arrival 
of the next incumbent, the Rev. John Gottlieb Herman, January, 
1837. The latter, as regular successor of the Rev. Lewis David de 
Schweinitz in the head pastorate — the service of Bishops Anders and 
Benade, in this capacity, 1834-1837, was an emergency arrangement 



6/6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

— continued in office until September, 1844, when he went to Europe 
as the American member of the Unity's Elders' Conference. He 
became a bishop in 1846, was President of the General Synod in 
1848, returned to America in 1849, and died in a log cabin in the 
wilds of Missouri, July 20, 1854, on his return to Salem, N. C, from 
a visit to the Indian missions. His remains were eventually conveyed 
to Salem. While head pastor at Bethlehem, he also served as 
Principal of the Seminary, from the departure of Kummer until the 
arrival of his successor, the Rev. Henry Augustus Shultz, of Phila- 
delphia, in June, 1844. Former Principal Seidel, who retired in 1836, 
removed, in August, 1837, to Newport, R. I., and took temporary 
charge of the Moravian work there. In October, 1839, he again 
became associate minister and preacher at Bethlehem, first with 
Herman and then with his successor the Rev. Samuel Reinke, from 
October, 1843, head pastor. In January, 1837, the Rev. John 
Christopher Brickenstein became warden at Bethlehem, as the 
successor of the Rev. John Frederick Stadiger, who had retired 
after filling this important office during twenty-nine laborious and 
troublesome years, and who then lived at Bethlehem in retirement 
until he departed this life, November 16, 1849. Prior to Seidel's 
return, the position of associate minister had been filled, May, 1838, 
to October, 1839, by the Rev. George Frederick Bahnson, professor 
in the Theological Seminary. His colleague in the professorship, 
the Rev. Charles Christlieb Dober, died at Bethlehem, January 21, 
1841. Other professors of this period, at Bethlehem, were the Rev. 
Charles A. Van Vleck, October, 1839, to March, 1845, the Rev. Emil 
A. de Schweinitz from August, 1841, until he became warden at 
Nazareth in 1842, and Dr. Edward Rice, 1839 to 1849. 

The centennial celebration was soon followed by a period of busi- 
ness turmoil and demoralization. The financial crash which Beth- 
lehem, like so many other places in those years, had to experience, 
came in October, 1842, when Owen Rice, whose business operations 
had been more extensive and varied than those of any of his towns- 
men, and who had become most deeply involved, succumbed to the 
strain and failed. While some were fearing such a crisis for the 
town and were partially prepared for it, the announcement was 
startling to the most of the people and produced a panic that 
afifected business beyond the limits of Bethlehem. Money to a large 
amount for those days, held on loan for individuals and in charge 
for organizations, had been jeopardized beyond warrant in specula- 
tive ventures and was carried down with the wreck, the most se'rious 



1826 1845- ^77 

such loss being suffered by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, 
of which he had been the treasurer for a number of years. Other 
men who might have withstood the general financial depression of 
the time gave way under this new strain. Joseph and James Leibert, 
who had suffered severely from the great freshet of the previous 
year, were compelled to suspend operations at the tannery and that 
important industry lay idle for a few years. Lewis Doster's busi- 
ness was hkewise crippled by the indirect effects of this crash, fol- 
lowing the devastation wrought by the water, and all the merchants 
and shop-keepers felt it in varying degrees, while many not engaged 
in business found their little hoard swept away. In consequence of 
these experiences, the conviction rapidly matured that, without 
further delay, steps towards the complete re-construction of property 
control and financial management must be taken by the authorities, 
and that everything in the existing system of Bethlehem which, in 
order to maintain it, compelled the further purchase of houses that 
men were driven to sell, must be set aside, for it had now become 
impracticable to continue this burdensome method. And yet, when it 
came to facing the final issue, the abolition of the lease-system, and 
with it, necessarily, the old exclusive church-village organization, 
there was at last more difference of opinion, both in official bodies 
and among the people generally, than those who clearly saw the 
necessit}' of it had expected ; although by far the majority decidedly 
favored it. 

The Supervising Board of Bethlehem — Aufseher Collegium — on 
February 14, 1843, appointed a committee of five to prepare an 
exhaustive report on plans to be proposed for further consideration. 
The first week in May, the report was discussed by the board and 
that part of it which proposed the entire abolition of the lease- 
system, with, of course, the abandonment of the exclusive polity — 
in so far as this yet existed — following upon it, was unanimously 
adopted as their proposition. The view prevailed that no partial 
steps nor gradual processes were practicable. There was a differ- 
ence of opinion, however, on that part of the report which dealt with 
plans for village and church re-organization. The report, as it left 
the board with no conclusion on this portion, was then referred to 
the Elders' Conference of the village. Their deliberations had prac- 
tically the same result, and then the report, with what they had to 
add, went before the Provincial Board. They were also divided in 
opinion on the measures proposed. A full report on the situation 
was prepared for the Unity's Elders' Conference. This body had 



678 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

asked for it and were entitled to it, with an opportunity to give their 
views, because of constitutional and financial relations. A very 
thorough discussion of the subject was had by the Provincial Board 
on July 19, 1843, after receiving the opinions of the U. E. C. The 
latter were inclined to regard the final step as unavoidable at Beth- 
lehem, because of its external location, its peculiar circumstances 
and its growth, numerically and otherwise, beyond the limit to which 
the retention of the old organization was practicable, even if the 
time did not seem to have come for such a change at Nazareth, 
Lititz and Salem. The opinion was held by the majority of the 
Provincial Board that even the internal, spiritual condition of the 
Congregation would ultimately be improved by such a complete 
opening up, when church membership and citizenship in the town 
would no longer mean one and the same thing to the minds of the 
people; when the former would become a voluntary union and the 
external compHcations would disappear. It may be remarked here 
that this important thought was shown by the outcome to be sound 
and true. The Church gradually became a better Church after the 
turmoil of re-construction subsided, leaving it an organization in 
the town instead of being the town, comprehending all that town 
meant, with men's status as residents and their business rights and 
privileges in the place depending upon their church-membership and 
consequently — for they were no longer even in theory a company 
of heroic Christians and enthusiastic evangelists — for many the 
uppermost reason why of their membership. 

In discussing the very practical aspect of the question, the increase 
of houses and consequent increase of difficulty about transfers and 
sales, it was observed that in the course of fifteen to twenty years, 
forty-five new buildings had been erected and many old ones had 
been remodeled and enlarged, besides all those in what was then 
called South Bethlehem, of which at least seventeen had been built 
within nine years ; also that two entirely new streets, Broad and New 
Streets, had been opened and Market Street had been extended dur- 
ing those years, whereas during the same period not more than 
eight new houses had been erected at Nazareth and Lititz. The 
possible effects of the change upon the Young Ladies' Seminary in 
various ways and the probable organization and building of churches 
in Bethlehem by other denominations were also elements of the situ- 
ation that were considered. It was shown by the Administrator 
that the peculiar financial compHcations which a few years before 
hindered the proposed step had been solved. More than one-third 



1826 1 845- 679 

of the debt of that time had been paid and financial relations to the 
Unity's Wardens had been gotten into a shape which left it possible 
to proceed. It was pointed out that there must be a proper, logical 
sequence of steps ; first the abolition of the lease-system, then the 
legal incorporation of the village and finally the re-organization and 
legal incorporation of the Congregation, followed by that of the 
Provincial Board, to hold the estate of the Sustentation Diacony 
after a settlement and division of property with the Bethlehem Con- 
gregation. Finall)', in considering the broad, general question of 
such a radical change in the organized form of the Congregation, 
it was agreed that no fundamental principle of the Church and no 
vital interest of the local Congregation would be sacrificed by abol- 
ishing the plan of colonizing in an exclusive church-village. Of this 
peculiar arrangement it was said "it was not an article stantis et 
sedentis ecclesiae nostrae." Then, on that day, July 19, 1843, a vote 
was taken in a meeting of the Provincial Board on the question of 
favoring the proposed step as expedient. The vote stood five in 
favor to one opposed. The Elders' Conference and the Supervising 
Board of Bethlehem, while not unanimous at this time on the three 
main questions, the abolition of the lease-system, the incorporation 
of the village as a borough and the incorporation of the Congrega- 
tion, favored these steps by a very large majority. The records do 
not state exactly how the vote stood in those boards. Then, in the 
midst of much excited discussion among the people, a temporary 
reaction of opinion among many was produced by arguments against 
the proposed course by the Warden of the Congregation, who advo- 
cated a different method of dealing with the situation, and it became 
uncertain for a while what the result of a final vote in the Congre- 
gation Council might be. 

At this juncture the last action needed to settle the question was 
taken by the General Wardens in Europe. A letter was received 
from them in November in which the)' declared against any further 
advance of money by their agent, the Administrator, for the pur- 
chase of houses at Bethlehem, in order to maintain the existing 
system. Thus, instead of holding things back — as, under the super- 
ficial impression of their attitude which later prevailed among some, 
in the excitement of controversy, on new questions, in the next 
decade, they were charged with doing — they really gave the final 
push forward. 

On January 11, 1844, the Congregation Council definitely resolved 
in favor of the first step, to abolish the lease-system. This decision 



68o A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

was followed by many important deliberations on new arrangements 
that would immediately be necessary, particularly in the matter of 
sales and further leases of real estate. An ad interim status, until 
the point of incorporating the Congregation should be reached, had 
to be provided for. Ground rents would now become redeemable 
for its members, and persons who were not members could secure 
lots on ground rent, which was not the case before, the intention 
being that when the new permanent status was reached, real estate 
could be conveyed in fee simple not only to members, but to any 
person. The proposed incorporation of a water company was favor- 
ably acted upon by the Congregation Council on November 28, and 
a revised body of rules and regulations for the Congregation, 
adapted to this ad interim condition, were compiled which, on 
December 8, were read, expounded, adopted and laid before the 
members for signature. As regards the new village organization, 
to be distinct now from that of the Congregation, the discussion, 
intensified among some into controversy, was no longer discussion 
between parties for and against retaining the old arrangements. 
This stage of the question was past, because everybody understood 
that the vote of January 11, 1844, h^d settled that ; for the old church- 
village organization disappeared necessarily with the abolition of 
the lease-system. This further discussion was rather such as might 
take place in any little town on the points involved in a proposed 
borough organization, such as increased taxation to run a system 
of borough machinery with improvements and elaborations of 
various kinds ; discussion between those who see and those who do 
not see the necessity of becoming a borough; between those who 
are public-spirited and progressive and those who are not, or 
between those who have interests involved and those for whom it 
is immaterial. Bethlehem would now, in the first place, become 
simply a village, with what had remained of good government and 
order under the old system abolished and nothing new instituted to 
take its place. Some did not appreciate the force of this fact. Those 
who did and who understood that the large interests to be cared 
for would not admit of a long continuance of such a situation, were 
decidedly in the majority. The necessary steps were therefore 
taken before the close of the year to secure borough incorporation. 
March 6, 1845, "An Act to incorporate the village of Bethlehem, in 
the County of Northampton, into a Borough," was approved. Its 
metes and bounds were thus described : "Beginning at the River 
Lehigh at the fording-place immediately above Jones's Island; 




JOHN KRAUSE 



OWEN RICE (2no) 



JOHN CHRISTIAN LUCKENBACH 
JACOB RICE CHRISTIAN JACOe WOLLE 



1826 1845. 68i 

thence up the said river to the mouth of Monocacy Creek; thence 
along the said creek to the stone bridge at the Hanover Township 
hne in Northampton County; thence along the center of the upper 
road, leading from Allentown to Easton, to the intersection of the 
road leading from Nazareth to Philadelphia ; thence along the center 
of the road last mentioned to the River Lehigh to the place of 
beginning." An act, approved March 24, 1856, extended the Hues 
to the Borough limits as they have since existed. In accordance 
with the provisions of the act of March 6, 1845, the voting citizens 
met at "the house now in the occupancy of Caleb Yohe in the said 
Borough" — the Eagle Hotel — on the third Friday in March — it 
being the day of annual township elections, Good Friday, March 21, 
1845 — and elected a Burgess, nine Councilmen and three Auditors. 
Charles Augustus Luckenbach was elected the first Burgess. The 
first Town Council were Ernst F. Bleck, Lewis Doster, Benjamin 
Eggert, Philip H. Goepp, Henry G. Guetter, Charles L. Knauss, 
John M. Miksch, Christian Luckenbach and William Luckenbach. 
They held their first session, organized and appointed sundry 
Borough functionaries on March 24, at the Eagle Hotel. The incor- 
poration of the Borough did not end the existence of the old 
Aufseher Collegium or Supervising Village Board, although it trans- 
ferred to the Town Council all those municipal functions which this 
board had before performed and which naturally now belonged to 
the Borough authorities. The Collegium continued, during the ad 
interim status of the Moravian Congregation, for the purpose of 
caring for its property and managing the laying out of town lots, 
opening of streets and alleys in its various blocks of real estate within 
the Borough limits, and, as a cabinet associated with the "Lord Pro- 
prietor and Administrator," as he was once facetiously called — who 
continued to hold the titletoall the real estate until 1851 — to negotiate 
sales and leases. The Rev. Philip H. Goepp had been both Proprietor 
and Administrator since October 9, 1843, when Bishop William Henry 
Van Vleck, as Proprietor, executed a deed for the entire estate to 
Goepp, thus concentrating and simplifying the situation, preparatory 
to the proposed changes. That Board of External Supervision con- 
sisted, in 1845, when the Borough was incorporated, of Philip H. 
Goepp, President; John C. Brickenstein, the warden; Matthew 
Brown, Matthew Krause, Augustus Milchsack and John F. Wolle to 
the end of that year; Charles D. Bishop, Henry B. Luckenbach, 
Jacob Luckenbach and David Weinland to the end of the next year. 
In December of that vear four new members were elected bv the 



682 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Congregation Council in place of the one-year men. These were 
Ernst Lehman, Wm. Theodore Roepper, Samuel Schultz and 
Jedediah Weiss. Roepper had previously been secretary of the 
board, but not a voting member. 

The exact population of Bethlehem at that time cannot be ascer- 
tained beyond the membership of the Moravian Church. This, at 
the close of 1845, given in the customary manner, was as follows: 
Married people 278, widowers 8, widows 54, single men 56, single 
women 95, older boys 32, older girls 38; under thirteen years of age, 
117 boys and 130 girls; total 808. The Moravian statistics included 
also 100 girls from elsewhere who were boarders in the Seminary. 
They increased the population accurately known to 908. From 
various sources of information it may be estimated that about 150 
other persons lived within the Borough limits as householders or 
in service, so that the entire population was about 1050. 




BETHLEHEM 
FROM THE S. E., 1850 
FROM THE N.W., 1851 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Three Decades of Progress. 
1846— 1876. 

The foregoing narrative makes it sufficiently clear that it is an 
erroneous impression which has the events of 1844 and 1845 i" mind 
as a sudden crisis, and the change from church-village to borough 
as a stampede. It has been customary to lay so much stress upon 
one detail of the re-organization — the action of January, 1844, when 
the Congregation Council confirmed the action of the two village 
boards, sustained by the Provincial Board and the Unity's Elders' 
Conference, in favor of terminating the lease-system, as a step in 
the process of re-construction, and to speak of the town having then 
been "thrown open," that many who are not acquainted with the 
facts fancy the beginning and the end of the change to have lain in 
that vote. Some seem to have before them a kind of grotesque 
imaginary picture of it, like another capture of Jericho — an invading 
host marching around the Moravian walls until they suddenly fell, 
when the world got its first sight of what was inside and those inside 
first looked forth upon the world. Others have treated of it as if 
it had been like a first Oklahoma in-rush and scramble to locate 
claims when the supreme hour struck. Moravians themselves have 
been partly responsible for this impression, in their manner of speak- 
ing and writing about that epoch in later years. The absorbing 
thought of some residents was that of being able to secure owner- 
ship of the ground on which they lived and to buy a lot or lots, and 
from this point of view the situation was chiefly talked about by 
people. As for an imaginary rush upon the spoils from all quarters, 
it is a mistake to suppose that immediately after that action of Jan- 
uary, 1844, a new land office was opened and indiscriminate sales 
commenced. While ground-rents at once became redeemable and 
town lots purchasable in fee simple by Moravian residents ; and other 
persons could secure sites, as Moravians had before done, on ground 
rent under certain stipulations relating to the nature and use of 

683 



664 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

buildings and other points, and all the restrictions of the old system 
in the matter of permission to reside or open any business at 
pleasure were, of course, obsolete, the final status, when such ground 
rents of non-Moravians all became redeemable and sales outright 
were made to any one, was not reached until the process of re-con- 
struction was completed in 1851. During the interval direct sales 
were made, in certain exceptional cases, to outside parties and some 
acquired real estate in fee simple in the town by having Moravians 
purchase for them. The important steps leading up to the incorpo- 
ration of the Moravian Congregation had to do with other elements 
of the situation besides merely seUing town lots, and they were taken 
very deliberately and carefully. So broad were the connections of 
the process that it entered into the business of two Synods at Beth- 
lehem, 1847 and 1849, and even into that of a General Synod in 
Europe in 1848; being intimately related to the general modern- 
izing of the organization and government jf the Moravian Church in 
the United States, completed ten years later by the General Synod 
of 1857, preceded by Synods at Bethlehem in 1855 and 1856 and 
followed by one in 1858. The process involved so much from which 
important developments at Bethlehem issued that it enters essen- 
tially into the history of the town. The principal features in the 
transit of the Moravian Congregation from the point at which the 
abolition of the lease-system left it, to its legal incorporation in 1851, 
may therefore properly be sketched in this chapter. 

Up to that time, the former Bethlehem Congregation Diacony yet 
existed, with a warden at the head of its affairs, and the title to all 
of its real estate continued to be held by the Proprietor and Admin- 
istrator, the Rev. Philip H. Goepp. While various considerations, 
among others the burden of the collateral inheritance tax made it 
very desirable to terminate this individual proprietorship as soon 
as possible, the transfer of title to a corporation could not be made 
until important adjustments had been effected between the Beth- 
lehem Congregation, on the one hand, and the Unity's Wardens in 
Europe and the Sustentation Diacony instituted in 1771 and con- 
trolled by the Provincial Board at Bethlehem, on the other hand. 
There were thus three parties to the pending financial settlements, 
the Congregation, the Administration — that is, the agency of the 
General Wardens of the Unity — and the Sustentation — that is, the 
treasury which supported the government of the Church in America, 
excepting the North Carolina Province, and provided for the estab- 
lished pensions and educational privileges of the ministry and sundry 



1846 1876. 685 

other objects. Up to 1847, the Congregation, as well as the Sus- 
tentation, continued to owe a large amount to the Administration, 
and the resources of the Sustentation, which had no endowment 
worth speaking of, were meagre and quite inadequate. The two 
most important measures planned to solve the whole situation, 
extricate the Congregation and clear the way for the ultimate steps, 
were to extinguish its indebtedness to the Administration and to 
discharge its obligations to the Sustentation bj' a liberal endowment 
instead of a mere annual contribution under the old contract of 1771. 
After this matter had been thoroughly discussed by the Synod held 
at Bethlehem, May 2-20, 1847 — similar provisions for the Susten- 
tation by Nazareth and Lititz, which were made later, being also in 
mind — the Congregation Council at Bethlehem took favorable 
action. May 27, 1847, on a proposition by Administrator Goepp to 
sell to the Administration a body of 1,380 acres of the Bethlehem 
land, embracing seven farms and considerable woodland, at $75 per 
acre. This sale very nearly covered the debt of the Congregation. 
After arranging to dispose of the bulk of this land to private parties, 
Goepp went to Europe in the summer of 1847 to consummate the 
transaction with the Wardens of the Unity. He returned to Beth- 
lehem on November 9. 

Before the next steps were taken, a change in the government of 
the Church in America took place which was of importance among 
the closely related forward movements. The Synod which met at 
Bethlehem in 1849, was the first of these convocations that was 
officially called a Synod since 1768. During all that interval, with 
their very limited authority, they were called merely conferences. 
Constitutional changes had been conceded by the General Synod of 
the previous year which invested them with new powers that ren- 
dered them properly Synods, and gave the body of American Con- 
gregations more character as a distinct integral Province of the 
Unity. Its Executive Board, called j'et the Provincial Helpers' 
Conference, continued, to this time, to be constituted as since 1818, 
consisting of a Presiding Bishop, the Administrator and the Head 
Pastors of the three church-villages — Bethlehem, Nazareth and 
Lititz — all being appointees of the Unity's Elders' Conference. Now 
this Provincial Board consisted of three members ; two elected by 
the Synod and holding no other office, and the Administrator c.v 
officio. Bishop Benade, the President, had retired before the Synod 
of 1849 ^^i> and the first two members of the Provincial Board 
elected by the Synod were Bishop John C. Jacobson and the Rev. 



6o6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Henry A. Shultz, associate pastor at Bethlehem. Subsequently it 
was called the Provincial Elders' Conference, the name by which it 
is constitutionally yet known, and after 1857 all of its members were 
elected by the Synod and chose their own President. As constituted 
in 1849, this board had more of the character desirable to secure for 
it a charter of incorporation, qualifying it to hold and control prop- 
erty under the laws of the Commonwealth, than before. In view 
of plans at Bethlehem for the Sustentation, that step was had in 
mind in the final settlement of afifairs, as well as the incorporation 
of the Congregation. After further preliminary consultations and 
arrangements, the next distinct step in the process was taken, 
December 26, 1850, when the Congregation Council formally 
adopted three important propositions : that the Congregation should 
be incorporated in order to legally hold and manage its property; 
that its real estate should, for the most part, be converted into cash ; 
and that a division of property and settlement should be made with 
the Sustentation Diacony. A committee of seven was appointed to 
take the whole subject into consideration in conjunction with the 
Warden, John C. Brickenstein, and the Provincial Board. The com- 
mittee were Charles Augustus Luckenbach, the mover of the propo- 
sitions ; Jacob Rice, John M. Miksch, James T. Borhek, Ernst F. 
Bleck, William Eberman and John F. Ranch. They submitted a 
printed report, together with a draft of an Act of Incorporation, on 
January 30, 1851. The report dealt with the general question of 
incorporation, discussed the proposed sale of real estate and set 
forth the plan of settlement with the Sustentation, elaborating 
details of the course to be taken in pursuance of the above proposi- 
tions. It was recommended that, following upon the incorporation 
and in connection with the division of property with the Sustenta- 
tion, the entire estate of every kind whatsoever be put into the 
hands of a Liquidation Committee after June i, 1851, if the charter 
of incorporation had been secured. That committee was to consist 
of three men, one appointed by the Trustees of the incorporated 
Congregation, another by the Proprietor, and the third by the Pro- 
vincial Board. It thus represented the three parties to the settle- 
ment — the Congregation, the Administration and the Sustentation. 
On a second reading the report was adopted, with slight altera- 
tions, at another meeting of the Congregation Council on February 
13, and the committee was continued to carry out the plans. Admin- 
istrator Goepp and Ernst F. Bleck went to Harrisburg, February 
19, to secure the passage of the Act of Incorporation and, at the 




CHARLES FREDERICK BECKEL THEODORE FRANCIS WOLLE 

CHARLES DAVID BISHOP 

JOHN SEBASTIAN GOUNDIE HENRY GOTTLOB GUETTER 



1846 18/6. 68; 

same time, another act incorporating the Provincial Board. Both 
acts were passed. That incorporating the Provincial Board was 
approved, March 29, and that incorporating the Congregation, April 
3, 1851. The legal title given the Provincial Board was "The Board 
of Elders of the Northern Diocese of the Church of the United E^-eth- 
ren^ in the United States of America." That given the Congregation 
was "The Congregation of United Brethren of the Borough of Beth- 
lehem and its Vicinity." Both corporations yet carry the load of this 
ponderous verbiage.^ April 14, the Congregation Council chose three 
men to hold the first election under the charter. They were Charles 
F. Beckel, Charles D. Bishop and Jedediah Weiss. The election took 
place, April 22. The Act of Incorporation provided for the election 
of six Trustees, two Elders to constitute with the pastors of the 
Congregation — at that time a senior and a junior minister — the 
Board of Elders, and three School Directors, who with the Board 
of Elders, were to constitute the School Board, in charge of 
the Parochial Schools.- The first officers elected under the charter 
were the following: Elders, Charles D. Bishop, John F. Rauch; 
Trustees, Matthew Krause, Jacob Rice, Henry B. Luckenbach, 
Charles F. Beckel, Ernst F. Bleck ; School Board, Philip H. Goepp, 
Simon Rau, Jedediah Weiss. 

The Board of Elders met, April 23, and organized with the Rev. 
Charles F. Seidel as "Senior Minister," in priority of service, ex 
officio President, in accordance with the charter, and his colleague 
since September, 1849, Bishop William Henry Van Vleck, Secretary, 
until December, when, as was had in view in his call to Bethlehem, 
he became senior minister and President, Seidel retiring. The Board 
of Trustees organized, April 29, with Ernst F. Bleck as President 
and Charles F. Beckel as Secretary. Matthew Krause became the 
first Treasurer of the Board. The School Board organized. May i, 
with the Rev. C. F. Seidel, President of the Board of Elders, as 
President ex officio, Simon Rau as Secretary and Charles D. Bishop 
as Treasurer. 

In May, the Liquidation Committee, appointed to take the prop- 
erty in hand and complete the sales, divisions and settlements, was 

1 On the names United Brethren, Brethren's Church, Brethren's Unity and Moravian 
Church see Chapter II, note i. 

2 An amendment to the act, December 2, iSSq, by decree of the Court of Common Pleas 
of Northampton County, increased the number of Trustees to nine, the number of Elders 
from two to six and the elected members of the School Board from three to six, with the 
pastors, but no longer the other members of the Board of Elders, members ex officio. 



688 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

formed. It was composed of C. A. Luckenbach, Jacob Rice and VV. 
T. Roeppei^ named respectively by the Trustees of the Congregation, 
the Proprietor and the Provincial Board. They finished their work 
and made a final report in May, 1852. 

As soon as the Act of Incorporation went into effect in tlie election 
of the first officers under the charter, the former financial system 
known as the Congregation Diacony was brought to an end and the 
wardenship ceased. The last Warden was the Rev. John C. Brick- 
enstein. The old Supervising Board, the Aufsehcr Collegium, also 
came to an end, its successors being the Borough Council and the 
Trustees of the Moravian Congregation in the now separate domains 
of town and church business. The members of that former board 
had, for some years, been elected in sets for one year and two years 
annually in December. The final incumbents, with Administrator 
Goepp as President, Warden Brickenstein ex aflicio a member and 
W. T. Roepper as Secretary, were the following: elected, December, 
1849; Matthew Brown, Charles Knauss, John Krause, John C. 
Weber, with James Leibert, Henry B. Luckenbach and John M. 
Miksch holding over from the previous year; and then their suc- 
cessors elected, December, 1850, for the remaining term ; Charles 
A. Luckenbach, William Luckenbach and David Weinland. One 
office that had always existed under varying organization was con- 
tinued — that of Almoners who subsequently were incorporated as 
the "Trustees of the Bethlehem Poor Fund," in order to legally hold 
and administer a small capital which, in the final settlement of affairs, 
was set apart to serve, in addition to the voluntary charity of the 
membership, for the relief of the needy. Another that ceased was 
that of Curator of the Sisters' House and the Widows' House ; the 
diaconies of these establishments having come to an end — that of the 
Widows' House not until 1848. The names continued to cling to 
the buildings and they continued to be occupied as before, but with- 
out organized management and financial system. They became 
simply dwellings in which each occupant had her own private house- 
keeping. One of the last who exercised such supervision of affairs 
as curator was the Rev. William Eberman, who removed to Beth- 
lehem from Hope, Indiana, in 1841, to assume the office, while at 
the same time actively engaged in a variety of other duties until he 
went to Nazareth in 1851, to take charge of the wardenship. The 
Sisters' House and the Widows' House, together with the Old 
Chapel and other portions of the old historic mass of buildings, 
became a part of the portion of the Sustentation Diacony in 1851, 



1846 1876. 689 

when the settlement of property was completed, and remained in its 
possession for some years, the Sisters' House even to 1893 ; the Beth- 
lehem Congregation having, in the division,^ made over to that 
treasury almost half of its estate after the large land-sale of 1847. ^s 
regards the Administration at Bethlehem and its remaining property 
which was now distinctly the property of the Church in Germany, 
the Rev. Philip H. Goepp continued in charge as Proprietor and 
Administrator until 1856, when he deeded the estate yet left to the 
Rev. Eugene A. Frueauff, with W. T. Roepper in charge as cashier 
tmtil 1869, when the remainder was so disposed of by him that the 
business could be closed out, and the Administration came to an end. 

In this connection, before other matters are turned to, a few notes 
on the course of things with the Moravian Congregation during the 
years immediately following its incorporation may be added. Its 
entire membership at the close of that important year, 1851, num- 
bered 1007 souls, an increase of 199 since 1845, when the Borough 
was organized.'* 

After the incorporation of the Congregation it became necessary 
to revise its rules and regulations in various particulars. The new 
rules adopted finally, August 28, 1851, and distributed in print, 
remained in force unaltered imtil 1890. The changes in the pastorate 
were the following: The Rev. C. F. Seidel retiring in December, 
1851, Bishop William Henry Van Vleck took his place as Senior 
Pastor with the Rev. Lewis F. Kampmann as Jvmior Pastor : his 
place, until his arrival in May, 1852, being taken by the Rev. H. A. 
Shultz, a former pastor, then resting. Bishop Van Vleck died sud- 
denly on January 18, 1853, and the veteran pastor, Seidel, then in 
retirement, took the position once more for an interval until the 
arrival of the new pastor, the Rev. Samuel Reinke, who, from 1844 



3The population of the Borough had increased from about lioo in 1845, to 1500 by exact 
census at the end of 1850. An interesting count of the population by streets, December 29, 
1847, is on record. It is as follows : 

Broad Street 334 

Water Street, including Old Alley 74 

South Bethlehem (Old South Bethlehem along the canal) .... 62 

Cedar Alley 29 

Main Street, including Boarding School 436 

Market Street 1 24 

New Street 118 

Church Street 135 

Total 1312 

45 



690 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

to 1847, li^cl served as head pastor under the old organization. This 
his second term extended only from May, 1853, to November, 1854; 
Junior Pastor Kampjnann remaining until September, 1855. After 
a temporary supply of the pastorate the Rev. H. A. Shultz and the 
Rev. David Bigler, who became bishops in 1864, took pastoral charge 
before the end of 1855, the first as "German preacher" and the second 
as "English preacher;" experiments to meet difficulties resulting 
from the rapid ascendency of English having commenced. The first- 
named remained pastor until June, 1865, the last-named until 
October, 1864. 

Some changes made in the places of worship may also be noted. 
From 1816, when the exterior form of the church was greatly altered 
by running the gable roof out to both ends, no radical changes were 
made in the building until 1851. In 1824, the clock-works had been 
taken out of the little bell-turret on the old school building on Church 
Street and transferred to the church, and in July, 1838, the spire on 
the belfry was shortened somewhat. In 1833, plans for improving 
the exterior casings of the windows were adopted and, in accordance 
with those plans, the present plaster block-work was then put in 
place. In 1838, improved lighting facilities were introduced in the 
shape of thirty-eight oil lamps of the most satisfactory pattern to 
be found. They did duty until the introduction of gas, January 8, 
1854. The Congregation Council, on February 6, 1850, adopted plans 
for a new pulpit and enlarged organ gallery, presented by a com- 
mittee composed of the Rev. C. F. Seidel ; E. F. Bleck, the organist ; 
Reuben O. Luckenbach and William Luckenbach. The new pulpit 
was designed by Bishop Van Vleck, who, on September 28, 1851, 
preached the last sermon in the old one, perched high against the 
wall, which was then taken down and eventually conveyed to its 
resting-place in the garret where it may yet be seen. The alterations 
were finished in less than two^ months and on November 28, the 
Bishop preached for the first time in the new one which remained in 
use until 1867. It is now, as previously stated, doing duty in the 
South Bethlehem Moravian Church, to which building it was trans- 
ferred when his son, the present Bishop H. J. Van Vleck, ministered 
as pastor in that new sanctuary. In June, 1857, the old stone wall 
which surrounded the church-yard was removed to be replaced by 
the present iron fence. In the spring of i860, plans for collecting 
and properly arranging the library and archives in the up-stairs, 
east-end room of the church were officially discussed. In accordance 
with a resolution of the Provincial Svnod in 1861, the general archives 



1846 1876. 691 

of the Church were consohdated with those of the Bethlehem Con- 
gregation and were given a permanent home in that room, the 
Trustees of the Congregation defraying aU the expenses connected 
with their preservation and increase up to the present time. In 1867, 
the most extensive alterations that have thus far taken place were 
made in the interior of the church. The little corner galleries at 
the east end were removed, the alcove and present pulpit were con- 
structed, the stairway at the south-east corner was taken away, the 
present gallery at the west end was built and the present pews were 
substituted for the loose benches then yet in use. The walls were 
frescoed, the present ground glass was put into the windows, heavy 
gas chandeliers, some of which are now doing service in the West 
Bethlehem Chapel, were hung and for the first time the floors were 
carpeted. It was re-opened with elaborate services on June 30, 1867, 
when the anniversary of the Congregation was celebrated. The inter- 
ior of the church remained in the shape into which it was then put 
until 1888, when another renovation of the frescoing and painting 
took place. The replacing of the original organ by the present one 
in 1873, has been referred to in a previous chapter. The present bell 
was hung in the steeple, October 23, 1868. The old one is now in 
use in the steeple of the West Bethlehem Chapel. The fiftieth anni- 
versary of the consecration of the church was specially celebrated 
on June 22, 1856. The Rev. C. F. Seidel, who participated, referred 
to his having preached in it directly after his arrival in America, 
six months after its consecration. The venerable Bishop Andrew 
Benade, who preached the first English sermon in the church on the 
day of its conseca^ation, was yet living at this time, but was too 
feeble to attend the services. At the beginning of 1856, the Old 
Chapel, in which, during that year, some interior alterations were 
made, again became a regular place of worship. The organ at present 
in use in that chapel was btiilt in 1859, and used the first time on 
June 28, of that vear. Early in 1865, the interior of the building was 
entirelv reconstructed, the present north facade was built, and its 
re-opening for worship took place, April 2, of that year. It remained 
unaltered until 1897. These notes complete all reference to these 
buildings that neecls to be made. 

Yet another prominent enterprise of the Aloravian Congregation 
that lies within the period of this chapter and has given to Bethlehem 
one of its notable features, was the opening of the Xisky Hill Cem- 
eterv. The first section of that tract, so finely located and well 
adapted for the purpose, was staked of? to be reserved as a cemetery 



6g2 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

in August, 1849. The plan from the beginning was to use a portion 
of it for interments in the manner foUowed in the old cemetery, and 
to lay out the rest to be sold in lots in the customary way. With the 
exception of that part of Nisky Hill which was sold to the Lutheran 
and Reformed Congregations as a Union Cemetery in 1850, with 
an addition in i860 — the first interment in which was made July 7, 
1 85 1 — no actual use of any ground was made there in pursuance of 
this project until more than a decade later, when the rapid filling up 
of the old cemetery and the expre'ssed desire of many residents for 
a general cemetery led to the execution of the plan. The first inter- 
ment was made on May i, 1864, and the first adult member of the 
Moravian Church there laid to rest was the Treasurer of the Congre- 
gation, Matthew Krause, November 20, 1865; the man who was the 
original projector of the enterprise, its chief advocate and most 
energetic promoter. Many years of careful effort, with progressing 
improvements and repeated extensions made by the Trustees of the 
Congregation, have resulted in one of the most attractive cemeteries 
in the Lehigh Valley. Both the natural agreeableness of the locality 
and the care bestowed upon every part of it, soften to a degree not 
common in places of burial, the marks of contrast between the rich 
and the poor there met together ; a contrast which is entirely invisible 
in the historic old cemetery of Bethlehem, where row had been added 
to row of green mounds, all alike, for it was a "God's Acre," nearly 
a full century and a quarter before the new one was opened. 

The period during which the complete re-organization of the Mora- 
vian Congregation was in progress constituted an ecclesiastical epoch 
in Bethlehem also in the fact that the beginnings of other denomin- 
ational religious work in the town lie in those years. These begin- 
nings can suitably be introduced at this point. It was natural that 
the variegated accretions of population added to the original Church 
of the town a variety of denominational types in a few years. Before 
the time to which this chapter runs had been reached, congregations 
representing nearly all of these variations had been organized in 
Bethlehem. It was also natural, in view of traditional associations 
and the principal denominational surroundings, that the Lutheran 
and Reformed Churches should be the first to organize among the 
new residents of Bethlehem ; and that the first church built in the 
place that was not a Moravian church should be one of the union 
churches of these two bodies, which had become so numerous about 
the country. Therefore the first modern church edifice in Bethlehem 
was Salem Church on High Street, which was built bv these two 



1846 18/6. 693 

denominations, was used by them jointly until 1869, and stood until 
the present structure, on its site, took its place in 1886. The Rev. 
Joshua Jaeger introduced stated Lutheran preaching at Bethlehem 
in October, 1849, "i the "Armory," now the Market House, on 
Broad Street. On December 9, he preached in the Moravian church, 
on invitation of its clergy. The Lutheran pastor, Wenzel, of Heck- 
town, also officiated in the Armor}' on December 2. Services by 
■pastors of Reformed churches of the neighborhood began on Decem- 
ber 23, 1849, when the Rev. J. C. Becker, D. D., officiated in the 
Armory. On January 13, 1850, the Rev. J. S. Dubbs, D. D., preached 
in the Moravian church. On December 26, 1849, the Rev. J. W. 
Richards, D. D., Lutheran, the Rev. Dr. Becker, Reformed, in con- 
sultation with the Rev. H. A. Shultz, of the Moravian Church, drafted 
a constitution for the proposed "Union Church," which contained a 
clause giving Moravian ministers also the privilege of preaching in 
it. Sundry members of the several denominations living in Beth- 
lehem were present on that occasion. They met in the Moravian 
school-house on Cedar Street. That constitution was adopted, 
August 24, 1850. Previously, on November 6, 1849, two building 
lots had been granted on ground-rent to the appointed applicants, 
John Berger and John K. Dech, together with Josiah George, who 
had joined the Moravian Church. The purchase of the site was 
made by Joseph Hess and John Nace, Trustees, on June 18, 1850, 
for $133.34, and an annual ground rent of $8, which latter was 
remitted in 1853. The corner-stone of the church was laid on 
Sunday, September i. 1850. The forenoon service in the Moravian 
church was held earlier than usual to enable all to attend the cere- 
mon}' who wished to do so, for it was a notable event. There were 
services in the forenoon and in the afternoon, the former seriously 
interfered with by rain but the latter attended by a great throng of 
people. Of Lutheran ministers. Pastors Jaeger, Richards and Stern ; 
of Reformed ministers, Pastor Becker and Candidate Santee ; of 
Moravian ministers. Bishop Jacobson and the Rev. Messrs. Goepp, 
Shultz and Seidel participated in the services, and the Moravian 
church choir rendered an anthem and led the congregational singing. 
In the stone were deposited, besides the customary kind of a docu- 
ment, a Bible, the constitution and hymnal of the Union Church, the 
symbolical books of the two denominations and, at the suggestion of 
the Lutheran and Reformed ministers, a Moravian hymnal and 
catechism. That occasion which marked the beginning of denom- 
inational diversity at Bethlehem, was indicative of the position taken 



694 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

by the best spirit of Protestantism in the matter of relations ; that of 
concord without interference with distinctive standards. It was a 
reminder of liistoric efiforts to realize this position as far back as 
the Consensus of Sendomir, in 1570. That corner-stone of Salem 
Church was a witness to something which deserves to be remem- 
bered. 

Easter Day, April 20, 1851, was settled upon by the church officers 
for the consecration of the church. The pastors of the neighborhood 
could not absent themselves from their churches on that day and 
therefore, by special arrangement, the dedicatory services were 
taken charge of by the Moravian ministers Seidel and Shultz. At 
the afternoon service Pastor Becker and Candidate Santee were 
present and the Lutheran clergy were represented by the Rev. S. K. 
Brobst, D. D., of AUentown. The musicians of the Moravian Church 
again rendered service. The festivities were continued on Easter 
Monday, when, besides the ministers just named, the Rev. Dr. Dubbs 
and Bishop Van Vleck participated. The first Lutheran pastor in 
Bethlehem was the late Rev. C. F. Welden, D. D., who preached 
his introductory sermon on November 16, 1851. He served in this 
pastorate until 1865, when he was succeeded'by the Rev. J. B. Rath. 
The first Reformed pastor was the Rev. J. C. Becker, D. D., who 
preached his introductory sermon on July 20, 185 1, and his final 
sermon, October 21, 1855. His successor, after an interval of tem- 
porary supply, was the Rev. D. Y. Heisler and he was followed by 
the late Rev. L K. Loos, D. D., who began his labors in December, 
1866, and with pastor Rath, was serving in 1868, when the. two 
congregations decided to separate, the Lutherans acquiring sole 
possession of the church by purchase. Then the Reformed congre- 
gation erected Christ Church on Center Street. The corner-stone 
was laid, on June 6, 1869. The basement was opened for worship, 
January 15. 1870, and the edifice was consecrated, December 22,1872. 
Dr. Loos remained pastor until 1888, when, with a colony of the 
membership, he organized St. Paul's Church on December 4. Their 
place of worship at the corner of High and North Streets was com- 
menced in December, 1889, the corner-stone being laid on the 15th of 
that month. The church was consecrated, February 15, 1891. 

A further important evolution from Salem Church was the for- 
mation, in 1872 — when the Lutheran congregation had quite out- 
grown the capacity of the church — of a separate English congre- 
gation, and the erection, on Broad Street, of the second Lutheran 
church in Bethlehem, which was given the name Grace Church. 




WILLIAM CORNELIUS REICHEL CHRISTIAN FREDERICK WELDEN 

AMBROSE RONDTHALER 

ISAAC KALBACH LOOS MICHAEL ANDREW DAY 



1846 1876. 695 

Preparatory work for the foundations of this new house of worship 
was commenced in July, 1872, the corner-stone was laid on August 
25, the organization of the congregation took place on the anniver- 
sary of the Reformation, October 31, the basement of the edifice 
was dedicated January 5, 1873, remaining the place of worship until 
the final completion of the main body of the church and its conse- 
cration on January 4, 1874. The Rev. J. B. Rath cast in his lot with 
this new congregation and remained its pastor until his death in 1885 ; 
being succeeded in the pastorate of Salem Church by the late Rev. F. 
W. Weiskotten. These two Lutheran congregations and the 
Reformed congregation, which emanated from that beginning of 
1 85 1, have become, next to the Moravian congregation, the strongest 
in Bethlehem. 

x\t the same period in which services were commenced in Beth- 
lehem by Lutheran and Reformed pastors, a quite dififerent type of 
church activity appeared, which also represented historic relations 
to the Moravian Church, recalling the association of John Wesley 
and Peter Boehler more than a century before, as well as the sojourn 
in Bethlehem in the days of the Revolution, of the English soldier- 
preacher. Captain Webb, who went into the pulpit in military uniform 
instead of ecclesiastical vestments — the first Wesleyan organizer in 
Ame.rica of a great host of aggressive gospel champions. It was in 
1848, when occasional prayer-meetings were first held at a private 
house in Bethlehem by preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
serving the Allentown and Ouakertown circuits ; up to 1853, the 
Rev. Joshua H. Turner, the Rev. David R. Thomas, the Rev. M. A. 
Day and the Rev. W. H. Brisbane. Mr. Thomas commenced stated 
preaching in 1849, in the Odd Fellows' Hall* in the building on New 
Street long occupied in subsequent years by George Walil and now 
known as "The Brighton." 

The first of these men who preached in the Moravian church was 
the Rev. W. PL Brisbane, on !\Iarch 7, 1852, but several of them 
occasionalh" delivered addresses at temperance meetings in the Old 
Chapel — then }-et called the concert-hall — and on these occasions 



4 The first in Bethlehem of the so-called secret societies — an unfortunate term indiscrimi- 
nately applied to widely diverse organizations, from Anarchists to the most commendable 
beneficial orders — were the Independent Order of Odd Fellows who, on November 24, 1S42, 
instituted K eystone Lodge, No. 78. They encountered ecclesiastical objection at first, not 
because of anything linown to the discredit of the order but because of objection, on general 
principles, to 'secret societies." The aforesaid hall on New Street was dedicated by the 
Lodge, November 7, 1846. 



bgb A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

they and the Moravian pastors of that time, who supported the much 
needed efforts of the ' temperance organization," were brought into 
association together as early as 1849. 

The Rev. Samuel Irwin, who began to preach in Bethlehem in 
1853, brought about the establishment of a congregation of the 
Methodist Church, and the erection of a place of worship on Center 
Street. The corner-stone was laid on July 13, 1854. The church 
was dedicated, January 7, 1855, and received the name Wesley 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The first public collection towards 
building the second church which now occupies the site was taken 
in the Moravian church, when Bishop Simpson preached there on 
"March 12, 1865. The corner-stone was laid, September 11, 1869, and 
in November, the building was under roof. The basement story was 
formally opened for Divine service, January 30, 1870. The upper 
story was finally completed and consecrated, July 11, 1875. 

About three years after the incorporation of the Borough, min- 
isters of the Evangelical Association also found a nucleus among 
German-speaking people who desired their services, and a regular 
preaching-place was established at Bethlehem in 1848, by the Con- 
ference of that denomination within the territory of which the place 
lay. Their principal preacher of that time who visited Bethlehem 
was the Rev. J. Kramer. He also was invited to preach in the 
Moravian church. Their services were held for some time in Odd 
Fellows' Hall, alternating with those of the Methodist ministers. On 
November 17, 1853 — the Rev. F. Krecker filled the Bethlehem 
appointment that year — a Board of Trustees was elected and incor- 
poration was secured later under the title of "The St. John's Church 
of the Evangelical Association." They laid the corner-stone of 
their first church at the corner of New and North Streets on June 
5, 1854. Its dedication took place at Christmas of that year. Bishop 
Jacobson, of the Moravian Church, preached one of the sermons. 
The church which now stands near that site was built in 1880, being 
consecrated December .19 of that year. From the work there 



5 Penn Division of the Sons of Temperance was organized at Betlilehem in 1843 and se- 
cured official permission to have temperance meetings in the Old Chapel. As early as 
March, 1S45, ^^^ records refer to negotiations on their part for a lot on Broad .Street for a 
hall. Some years later Temperance Hall is often alluded to. " Penn Section No. 3, Cadets 
of Temperence" was organized among the boys about 1863. While objection was expressed 
by some both clergy and laity, to the intemperate and unreasonable utterances of some 
extremists, the beneficial results of this movement at that period in many quarters were 
recognized by right-minded people at Bethlehem. 



1846 1876. ' 697 

centered, the several organizations of the Evangelical Association, 
in its present two divisions which now exist in the community, 
emanated during the last two decades of the centur}-. 

The next Church, in point of time, to begin work in Bethlehem 
was the Roman Catholic, the first public service of which was held 
in the Odd Fellows' Hall on March 11, 1855; r.lthough a priest from 
a neighboring town seems to have ministered at a private house 
already in 1854. The Church of the Nativity of our Lord was built 
on Union Street in 1856, and so far completed that the first service 
was held in it at Christmas of that year. There, both the German 
and English-speaking Roman Catholic population of the vicinity 
worshiped until 1863, when their first church on the south side of 
the river, which will be mentioned in another connection, was built. 
The next in order was the Protestant Episcopal Church. On Nov- 
ember 24, 1854, Bishop Alonzo Potter preached in the Moravian 
Church. The Rev. Mr. Osgood, of Easton, read the service on that 
occasion. During the summer of 1855, the Rev. Mr. Christman, of 
Philadelphia, and Mr. Latimer, a member of St. Stephen's Church, 
of that city, .for many years a visitor at Bethlehem, read service in 
the hotel parlors several times, and other visiting clergy officiated 
occasionally in Temperance Hall. Such ministrations continued at 
intervals and, on August 28, 1859, Bishop Samuel Bowman preached 
in Citizens' Hall, which had been opened in 1856. The leading resi- 
dent members of this Church lived on the south side, where the first 
regular services by lay-readers were instituted and the first organi- 
zation was effected. The beginnings on that side of the river which 
have not yet been treated of must be anticipated here in bringing all 
the church activities of that period into connection. On Christmas 
Day, 1862, Bishop Potter again visited Bethlehem and officiated at 
a service in the parlor of the "Bethlehem House" — previously, and 
again subsequently, the "American House" — and on May 8, 1862, 
Bishop Stevens conducted service and preached in the Old Chapel 
of the Moravian Congregation which was later tendered for the stated 
tise of the Episcopalians of the vicinity. They had services there and 
in the chapel of the Parochial School with considerable regularity for 
more than a year after July, 1863. On Maundy Thursday. March 24, 
1864. Bishop Potter administered confirmation in the Old Chapel. A 
few years after the parish on the south side was founded and the 
Church of the Nativity was built, to which more definite reference 
will be made in sketching South Bethlehem beginnings, some of its 
members commenced a branch w-ork in Bethlehem. A Sundav-school 



698 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

was opened in April, 1869, by tlie late H. Stanley Goodwin in the 
Wall Street school-house, and from that beginning arose Trinity 
Church on Market Street. The corner-stone of that church was laid 
on August 29, 1871. The basement story was opened for Divine 
service on January 16, 1872, and was consecrated, January 29, by 
Bishop Howe. A separate parish was organized in April and legal 
incorporation was secured, January 25, 1873. The first distinct rector 
of Trinity Church was the Rev. Charles Morrison. The finished 
church was consecrated April i, 1880. 

The beginning of Presbyterian activity at Bethlehem took place 
on the south side and will be mentioned more particularly later on. 
The first congregation there took the name "The Presb3^terian 
Church of Bethlehem." Some of its leading families lived on the 
north side, where an affihated Sunday-school was opened. The First 
Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem was .organized in the Young 
Men's Christian Association building", November 14, 1875. Services 
were held at a private residence on Broad Street until, on February 
14, 1876, a little meeting-house, built on Union Street a number of 
years before, for the establishment of a congregation of the United 
Brethren in Christ, which came to nought, was first occupied as the 
place of worship. It continued to be used until the dedication, April 
7, 1878, of the church on Centre Street, erected largely through the 
generous aid of the Rev. G. W. Musgrave, D. D., of Philadelphia, 
and for some years commonly called Musgrave Chapel. The first 
located pastor, the Rev. Alexander D. Moore entered upon his 
labors at the beginning of April, 1876, and remained until August, 
1891. The first Baptist organization in Bethlehem took place, as 
records show, on April 6, 1869. Services were held at a private 
house and then for some time in a hall above the former smith-shop 
of the Rices on the west side of New Street, between .Market and 
Broad. The Rev. E. Packwood, of Allentow:n, fostered the work 
during those years, until the first stationed pastor, the Rev. I. P. 
Meeks, took charge. The lot on which the church stands at the 
corner of New and Lehigh Streets was secured in 1872, and on Sep- 
tember 17 of that year, a temporary structure spoken of as the 
"wigwam" was opened for services at the place. In October, 1873, 
work was commenced at the foundation of the church, but the 
financial panic of that time caused a long delay. The corner-stone 
was laid, October 15, 1874. The building progressed slowly until 
the basement story could at last be occupied and it was used in an 
unfinished state some vears until finallv the entire church was com- 



1846 1876. 699 

pleted and dedicated, Februar}- 3, 1884. The regular organization 
of the Mennonite Brethren in Bethlehem, whose place of worship, 
Ebenezer Church on Laurel Street, was dedicated, November 10, 
1888, dates from 1884. They erected a "tabernacle" on Garrison 
Street, in that year, worshiped later in Citizens" Hall, and then built 
another temporary structure at the corner of Centre and Goepp 
Streets in the autumn of 1885. In February, 1887, the Rev. W. B. 
Musselman became their temporary minister. He officiated in a 
temporary chapel on Main Street, south of Fairview Street, until the 
erection of the present church. This may suffice in the way of refer- 
ence to new church beginnings in Bethlehem after the incorporation 
of the Borough. 

A few items of general religious activity, not strictly denomina- 
tional, during the three decades covered by this chapter deserve 
mention. On June 23, 1847, the first appeal of the Philadelphia 
Sabbath Association, through its canal-boat missionary, the Rev. 
William Hance, in behalf of evangelistic work among the boatmen 
on the Lehigh Canal, was favorably acted upon by the Moravian 
clergy. Not only did the stated collections for that Association, 
which have continued to this time, commence then, but personal 
work among the boatmen who tied up at Bethlehem and Freemans- 
burg over Sunday was undertaken. October 20, 1850, the Rev. 
William Eberman, who took an active interest in this cause, officiated 
at the first Sunday afternoon service held for those men in a room 
over Knauss and Borhek's store in Old South Bethlehem. Other 
people living in the vicinity and up the canal attended, and the 
considerable number of neglected children belonging to such families 
led him to open a Sunday-school there in February, 1851. This work 
was for a while so promising that the idea was officially entertained 
of building a chapel for its accommodation, somewhere about the 
foot of Vineyard Street. The interest was afterwards allowed to 
flag and no chapel was built, although, in June. 1856, after the erec- 
tion of a little school-house across the Monocacy, it was revived. 
There students of the Theological Seminary also began, in 1859, to 
keep praver-meetings and, on May 6, i860, opened another Sundav- 
school with thirty scholars. That was the beginning of the present 
West Bethlehem Moravian Sunday-school. 

The interest in the canal-boat mission led to the revival of the Tract 
Societv at Bethlehem which had become defunct. When the agent 
of the .American Tract Society, the Rev. Reuben Weiser, a great- 
grand-son of the famous Conrad AA^eiser, visited Bethlehem in 



700 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

October, 1850, the organization was resuscitated on the 7th of that 
month, and on the nth a new constitution was adopted. It was 
participated in by ministers of all denominations at Bethlehem dur- 
ing the subsequent years. The first tract depository was opened, 
March 22, 185 1, in a room in the Sisters' House known as the sales- 
room, where in former years^ even back to Revolutionary days, the 
handiwork produced by occupants of the house was disposed of to 
visitors. Then came a revival of organized activity in the interest 
of Bible distribution. The Bible Society formed thirty years before 
had sunk into decadence. The new movement occurred in Novem- 
ber, 1852, and was also participated in harmoniously by ministers 
and laymen of the several denominations. This time it was directly 
auxiliary to the Amei'ican Bible Society. A regular organization 
was formed, March 24, 1853. For a number of years annual meet- 
ings and collections for the cause took place on Thanksgiving Day. 
Pastor Welden, of the Lutheran Church, was for some time one of 
the zealous and energetic leaders in this branch of activity. More 
conspicuous among such general movements, was, however, that 
of the Young Men's Christian Association epoch in the following 
decade. Marked enthusiasm was awakened by the celebration of 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the, Young Men's Missionary Society 
on September 7, 1865. At a reunion of its members on that occa- 
sion, under the inspiration of the new Y. M. C. A. impulse of those 
times, the idea of a more developed institutional center for young 
men, in a building constructed and equipped for the purpose, was 
broached. Out of that arose the first such Association at Bethle- 
hem and its building — the structure on Main Street adjoining the 
present Moravian Publication Office on the north. A committee of 
twenty-one was constituted to develop the project, which finally 
took tangible shape in March, 1867, when the Rev. Edmund de 
Schweinitz — who had succeeded Bishop Bigler in the Moravian pas- 
torate in October, 1864, and was at this time in the midst of his 
well-remembered influential and fruitful labors in Bethlehem, where 
he was consecrated a bishop with the Rev. Amadeus A. Reinke in 
1870 — reported as chairman of the committee that the Rev. Francis 
Wolle, Principal of the Seminary for Young Ladies, had, in behalf 
of the Trustees of that institution — the Provincial Elders' Confer- 
ence — ofifered a site on Main Street for the proposed building. Plans 
of procedure took shape and their further working out and execu- 
tion was undertaken by a smaller committee of five. On .\pril 2. 
thev reported enough money secured to begin operations. On 




AUGUSTUS WOLLE CHARLES WILLIAM RAUCH 

MAURICE CHARLES JONES 
DAVID HENRY BISHOP JACOB BOEHM RATH 



1846 1876. 7° I 

May 17, work was commenced at the spot, the excavation for the 
foundations being performed by volunteers among the young men. 
On August 25, 1867, the corner-stone was laid with appropriate 
services and two days later the constitution and by-laws were 
adopted. Liberal assistance was given by many people of Bethle- 
hem and in due course of time the building arose and was finished. 
Its formal opening and dedication took place, Saturday and Sunday, 
March 21-22, 1868. Although the separate organic existence of the 
Young Men's Missionary Society continued, their interests were to 
some extent merged for a time. The museum of the latter, enriched 
on July 2, 1868, by a gift of two hundred mineral specimens by Mr. 
Samuel Wetherill and later by the loan of Schuessele's celebrated oil 
painting, "Zeisberger preaching to the Indians," 'besides other new 
acquisitions, was transferred to the new building, and its library was 
consolidated with a nucleus from other sources" under the control 
of the new Association — in all two thousand volumes. The reading- 
room and library were on the second floor and the hall for meetings, 

6 A committee appointed by the previously long-existing Bethlehem Library Association 
formulated, January 14, l868, to report for adoption on the disposition of its books, a reso- 
lution to the effect that they be put " into the keeping of the V. M. C. A. of Bethlehem," 
with the condition that the unsuitable books be retained and the members of the Library 
Association have the use of the Y. M. C. A. library " free from any charge or demand 
annual or otherwise therefor." This paper written and signed by Francis Wolle, Secretary, 
has on the opposite side, in the handwriting of W. T. Roepper, the following : " At a Gen- 
eral meeting of the Bethlehem Library Association held, January 20, 1868, the written 
report of the Committee was unanimously accepted and adopted, in witness whereof the 
members present have hereunto set their signatures with the additional, passed at said 
meeting, that in addition to the stipulations of the within report this Association reserves the 
right to withdraw the library from the keeping of the Y. M. C. A. of Bethlehem whenever a 
majority of the Library Association shall deem expedient so to do." The following auto- 
graph signatures are attached : 

W. T. Roepper, J. S. Krause, 

A. H. Rauch, R. W. Leibert, 

E. F. Bleck, R. W. Leibert, Adm. Est. C. L. Knauss, 

Jedediah Weiss, • Joseph A. Rice, for Josephine C. Rice, 

John C. Weber, Maria E. Kern, 

B. F. Caffrey, Francis Wolle, for Young Ladies' .Seminary, 
John Krause, Adolph Degelow, 

Augustus Belling, Paulina L. Doster, 
M. C. Jones, Charles F. Beckel, 

Henry B. Luckenbach, Augusta E. Crist, 

James T. Borhek, J, F. Erwin, 

J. T. Borhek, one of the Executors F. L. Traeger, 

of H, Guetter, B. E. Lehman. 



702 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

with a seating capacity of about three hundred, was on the third 
tloor. The Hbrarian was Dr. Valentine Hent, until January, 1875, 
when he was succeeded b}' J. T. Davenport until 1878. The build- 
ing and furniture cost about $15,000. 

The new organization did enthusiastic and valuable work during 
the first years of its existence. Its strength was afterwards impaired 
by influences inimical to denominational co-operation, by the loss 
of some of its most devoted supporters and by some elements of 
internal weakness which could not withstand the reaction of first 
impulses which inevitably comes to try every organization. Even- 
tually, like many another Y. M. C. A. which loses its hold on the 
interest or confidence of those in the community who could sustain 
it amid financial embarrassments, it sank under a remnant of debt. 
In 1878 its institutional work was closed and on December 12, 1881, 
it formally disbanded. Then the Young Men's Missionary Society 
again went on its way alone. It came into sole possession of the 
library which continues to have quarters in the building, along with 
its museum. It may be added, to complete these notes on Christian 
Association work at Bethlehem, that in 1890, a new attempt to 
establish a Y. M. C. A. was made and the next year a Young 
Women's Christian Association was, formed out of the previous 
Girls' Reading Room Association. The efforts did not, however, 
imder changed conditions, appeal sufficiently to people of the town, 
with interest centered upon other forms of activity, and before 1898 
both organizations were defunct. 

A cursory survey of the school work may follow. When the Rev. 
H. A. Schultz retired from the principalship of the Seminary for 
Young Ladies in 1847, he was succeeded by the Rev. Herman J. 
Titze. The latter was followed in August, 1849, by the Rev. Sylves- 
ter Wolle. who remained in charge until 1861, when his place w'as 
taken by the Rev. Francis AVolle, who was Principal until 1881. In 
1850, by action of the Congregation Council on July 25, the long- 
standing connection between the girls' day-school and the Young 
Ladies' Seminary was brought to an end. The "first class" of day- 
school girls who had been attending the Seminary were, together 
with a few girls from families not connected with the Moravian 
Congregation, formed into a senior or "select" class in charge of 
Miss Caroline Bleck, on October 23, 1850. It was quartered in a 
room of the Seminary building of 1790, which stood on the present 
Parochial School premises. It was formerly spoken of as the new 
Kinderhaits: (children's house) in distinction from the original Sem- 



1S46 1876. yo'i 

inar}-, the "bell house/' which was called the old Kiiidcrhaits. The 
school for smaller girls under Miss Frederica Traeger, kept first in 
Matthew Christ's house and then in the Sisters' House, was trans- 
ferred, in April, 1851, to another room in the stone building occu- 
pied by Miss Bleck's school. The boys' school remained in its 
former quarters in the school house on Cedar Street. Francis 
Wolle, who had been teaching the first class of boys for several 
years, was succeeded, in the summer of 185 1, by William C. Reichel, 
imtil February, 1852, when the latter became teacher of natural science 
in the Young Ladies' Seminary and was followed temporarily by 
David Z. Smith and then, in April, by Herman Ruede until 1858. 
Matthew Christ and his wife were yet connected with the Parochial 
Schools and he continued until after the new epoch of 1858. Mrs. 
Theodora Beear also remained one of the teachers of younger girls 
and boys until 1855. Others were Mrs. Lydia Rice, at intervals, 1849 
to 1855; Josephine Fenner, 1853 to 1855, when she was succeeded by 
Harriet Fuehrer ; Lucia Benade, who followed Caroline Bleck in 1854, 
and Augusta Stoltzenbach, who had charge of the new department, 
from 1855 to 1857, and a few years later taught again for a while. 

Wise provision had been made for the Parochial Schools in the 
charter of the Congregation, the benefit of which began to be real- 
ized after the Liquidation Committee finished its work in 1852. 
Financial obstacles to the betterment of school facilities had disap- 
peared and on December 13, 1855, the Congregation Council 
resolved to "recommend to the School Board an inquiry into the 
condition of the Parochial Schools with a view to the development 
of a plan or plans for the material improvement, both internal and 
external, of said schools.". A committee was appointed by the 
board, the following March, to prepare a report in pursuance of 
that resolution. The scheme reported and approved led to two 
important results. One was the erection of a new school house of 
sufificient capacity and the other was the consolidation of the bovs' 
and girls' schools of all grades in one organization under a Superin- 
tendent. The Congregation Council having, on December 11, 1856, 
declared in favor of these steps, it was resolved by the Board of 
Trustees at a joint meeting with the School Board, Januarv 12. 
1857. to "appropriate the lot of ground on which the stone school 
house now stands and as much more as may be needed for the pur- 
pose of erecting thereon a suitable school house and out-buildings, 
not to exceed in cost the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, this 
amount to cover the fixtures and arrangements," etc. A building 



704 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

committee was appointed, composed of two Trustees, Henry B. 
Luckenbach and Ambrose H. Rauch, the latter succeeded by C. A. 
Luckenbach ; two School Directors, James T. Borhek and Francis 
Wolle, the place on the committee of the latter being taken later 
by his successor as Elder and ex-oificio School Director, John C. 
Weber; and the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, Matthew 
Krause. A plan of the proposed building was adopted by the School 
Board after certain alterations, February 24, 1857. In March the 
services of the R'ev. Ambrose Rondthaler, of York, Pa., were 
secured as Superintendent. He arrived in Jul)-, when the new build- 
ing was in course of erection. The school departments that occu- 
pied rooms in the old stone building had been temporarily removed 
to the west-end rooms of the church in April, the persons who Hved 
in other rooms of the house had been furnished quarters elsewhere 
and the vacated structure had been demolished in May. The old 
corner-stone, hfted from its place on May 22, was relaid in the new 
building. When it was removed and the box of deposits was taken 
out of it, a venerable woman, the sole survivor of the girls who had 
belonged to the old boarding-school at the time of the re-organiza- 
tion in 1785, was present. This was Johanna Maria Heckewelder, 
famiHarly called "Aunt Polly Heckewelder," daughter of the mis- 
sionary John Heckewelder. It was ascertained that seven of the 
pupils of 1790 whose names appeared on the document in the stone, 
were yet living.^ To the regret of all, Miss Heckewelder was pre- 
vented by illness from being present when the old stone was placed 
in the south-west corner of the new building with prayer and praise 
on May 27. The old document, well preserved, was replaced in 
the stone and with it was deposited a new one of the usual character 
on which the names of the church authorities, general and local, 
the building committee and the teachers and scholars of the Paro- 
chial Schools in 1857 were engrossed. The finished building was 
formally opened and its chapel on the third floor dedicated, Febru- 
ary 15, 1858. The teachers, besides the new Superintendent, were 
at that time Herman Ruede, Matthew Christ. Lucia Benade, 
Frederica Traeger, succeeded that year by ^^'illiam Brown, Harriet 
Fuehrer. Mrs. Cornelia Blank and Augusta Belling. In August 

7 Salome Fetter, widow of Dr. Eberhard Freitag, Anna Rosina Kornman, wife of William 
Rauch, Anna Dorothea Warner, wife of Jacob Blum, Elizabeth Kampmann, widow of 
Bishop William Henry Van Vleck, Agnes Bininger. wife of Abraham B. Clark, Dorothea 
Sophia Reichel, wife of the Rev. Charles F. Seidel. and Margaret Catherine Vriehuis, of St. 
Jan, W. I. 



1846 1876. 705 

of that year, Charles Edward Kummer, an able and suc- 
cessful instructor, long connected with the school, first as senior 
teacher and then as Superintendent, entered as the successor 
of Herman Ruede. The only surviving members of the faculty of 
1858 at this writing are Mr. Kummer, residing at Medford, Mass., 
and Miss Fuehrer, now Mrs. B. F. Caffrey, of Bethlehem. Of their 
predecessors one remains, A'liss Fenner, now Mrs. Samuel S. Warner, 
of Bethlehem. The first janitor of the new building was William 
Lelansky, who continued to serve until 1889. The former boys' 
school house was at once remodeled as a dwelling for the Superin- 
tendent. It was so used until 1890. After that stride forward the 
school entered upon a notable period of prosperity and efficiency. 
The Rev. Ambrose Rondthaler was a man of high attainments, a 
born teacher and an enthusiastic worker. During the period of 
thirteen years in which he had charge of the Parochial School he 
held conspicuous rank among the educators of the Lehigh Valley. 
Benjamin Van Kirk, who, as stated in the preceding chapter, pur- 
chased Bleck's Academy in 185 1, had laudable aspirations with that 
popular institution. In 1855, he purchased a site in the eastern part 
of the Borough at the edge of what was indefinitely called Nisky 
Hill, and there erected a large building in which he re-organized 
the school as Nisky Hill Seminary. But reverses came through his 
protracted illness at a time of general financial depression and the 
enterprise languished. An attempt was made to continue it by other 
persons who rented the property, but it did not prosper and in 1858 it 
passed out of existence. The following year Mr. Van Kirk entered the 
Young Ladies' Seminary as an instructor in mathematics and Latin, 
and remained in connection with that institution in various capaci- 
ties, from 1866 as Vice-Principal, until beyond the period embraced 
in this chapter. With Van Kirk's Academy was connected, first as 
student and then as teacher, one who subsequently opened another 
of Bethlehem's educational institutions which for many years 
enjoyed well-merited favor. This was Charles H. Schwartz, who 
in 1857 erected a commodious building on High Street and in it, 
August 3 of that year, opened his Academy, which may be regarded 
as the legitimate successor of Bleck's and then Van Kirk's Academy. 
In 1871, the Rev. Ambrose Rondthaler rented the property and con- 
ducted the institution a few years until his retirement from active 
life. Mr. Schwartz then resumed control, conducting it partly as a 
school preparatory to Lehigh L^niversity until 1889, when physical 
46 



706 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

infirmity compelled him to retire from the profession of teaching 
and the institution was closed. In 1858, as stated in a note in a 
previous chapter, the Executive Board of the Moravian Church 
purchased the Nisky Hill Seminary property, and, after the build- 
ing had been remodeled, the Theological Seminary was re-opened 
in it, August 30, 1858. The Rev., Lewis F. Kampmann became 
President. It was re-organized on an elaborate plan, as the Mora- 
vian College and Theological Seminary. Under this title it was 
incorporated by act of Legislature, approved, April 3, 1863. 

The District School situation, for want of exact records at hand 
in detail, appears somewhat nebulous and obscure between 1845 and 
1850. Several schools existed in which the contract to keep a 
given number of months free school was combined with the privi- 
lege of also taking "subscription scholars" when the free school 
was not open. James Edward Knauss figures first, for several 
years, as the master of such a school, with Elizabeth Carrick in 
charge of an adjunct, besides a primary school in another house 
under his supervision. In 1850, Valentine Hilburn was on the scene. 
He was in charge, with Anna M. Reich, Maria Loesch and Susan 
Spinner assisting, when the disjecta membra of the free schools were 
collected and organized in the first public school house built in 
Bethlehem in 1853, on Wall Street, where the George Neisser 
School House now stands. In 1855 appears the name of M. W. 
Carroll as head' teacher, to 1858, followed by David Merrick, to 
March, 1859, and then, temporarily, by Benjamin Van Kirk, to Octo- 
ber, 1859, when he entered the Young Ladies' Seminary, Abraham 
Kindt, chosen to succeed Merrick, having withdrawn. An incident 
of 1858, that year of notable activity and advance in the educational 
work of Bethlehem, was the first general meeting of teachers, on 
December 31, in Citizens' Hall — brought about principally through 
the efforts of Herman Ruede, then editing the newspaper of the 
town — to form a "Union Teachers' Association." One old school- 
master of the time who took special interest in the movement, Emil 
F. Nimsch, entered the service in 1858 and continued until 1865. 
In i860, I. L. C. Miller began to teach in Bethlehem, as did also 
George Charles Rieser. From 1862 to 1869 appears the name of 
William N. Walker, who, after then serving a term as County 
Superintendent of Schools, was the first man elected (1872) as dis- 
tinctly Principal of Bethlehem Schools, \\ath larger prerogatives 
than belonged to the position of any of the previous head teachers, 
although some of them were also called principals. In 1865, Daniel 



1846 1876. 7°/ 

E. Schoedler was elected to this position, as it then existed. Two 
more of the prominent and well-remembered pedagogues of those 
years were A. A. Campbell, who began to teach in 1866, and Gottlieb 
C. Souders, who entered in 1867. The latter being a man of some 
musical ability and fond of singing, generously offered to drill the 
boys and girls of the schools in vocal music gratuitously and with- 
out interference with other school work. This was an offer which 
the School Directors found it easy to accept.* In 1865 the rooms 
in the Wall Street school house had become inadequate, and in Sep- 
tember, the use of the basement of St. John's Evangelical Associa- 
tion Church was secured for one school year, to accommodate the 
overflow, while the need of a new and much larger school-house 
began to be discussed. A site was purchased in 1866 at the north- 
east corner of North and Center Streets, but steps towards actual 
building operations were not immediately taken. Meanwhile, the 
Trustees of the aforesaid church declining to further rent the base- 
ment for school purposes, the Board of Directors, in the summer of 
that year, purchased and fitted up a building at the corner of Garri- 
son Street and Long Alley to serve the immediate need. January 
6, 1869, the Directors decided to proceed in the matter of erecting a 
new school house "commensurate to the needs of the district ;" 
this meaning, to the minds of some, a building not only large enough 
but of a quality and appearance that would do honor to the town. 
Their aspirations in this respect were eventually attained by very 
slow steps, in the face of considerable opposition and with an expen- 
diture of over $66,000 in the completion of Franklin School House, 
which was formally opened and dedicated on September 30, 1871. 
This was the beginning of a new era for the public schools of Beth- 
lehem. Lifted then to a higher plane they have steadily progressed. ° 



8 Besides those mentioned above, the names of the following women and additional men 
who for longer or shorter terms served as teachers in the public schools between 1855 and 
1871, given in the general order of succession in which they first appear, may be noted, 
without claiming perfect accuracy and completeness for the list : Louisa C. Cole, Helen 
Cole, Amanda A. Bast, Rebecca S. Ritter, Sarah E. Spinner, Anna B. Schmich, Alice Kidd, 
Frederick A. Welden, Sabina Wolle, Ellen Ritter, Lizzie J. Weaver, Jacob Nickum, Emma 
J. George, Clara V. Reich, Gertrude Wertz, Lizzie Teussig, Olivia Mease. 

9 The School Board, in January, 1869, were Rev. D. F. Brendle, President; Charles N. 
Beckel, Secretary ; William Leibert, Treasurer ; Augustus Wolle, Dr. T. H. Wilson, C. E- 
Kummer and Anton Hesse. 

The Building Committee of 1S69 were Augustus Wolle, D. F. Brendle, J. H. Wilson and 



708 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

In connection with these references to the schools of Bethlehem 
during the thirty years embraced in this chapter, it is proper to 
allude to the eiTorts of those who endeavored to foster the various 
refinements of general culture in the community, even amid 
untoward conditions at some periods. Although, at times, the 
influence of men who attach no value to any interests or activities 
beyond those covered by the word business, bore down hard on the 
town, there were always more people than in most Pennsylvania 
communities of like size who welcomed what the men of literature 
and science, the musicians and the artists had to dispense. Older 
residents of Bethlehem will recall the laudable exertions of the 
Young Men's Missionary Society at different periods, the proprie- 
tors of Citizens' Hall when it was in its best days, and the Young 
Men's Christian Association, for a while, to provide instruction and 
entertainment of an elevating character for the people of the place, 
by means of courses of lectures and concerts. In these efforts, home 
talent sometimes met the demand to a surprising extent, especially 
during the fifties and sixties of the century, while the financial possi- 
bility, then and later, of engaging high-priced lecturers and high- 
class musicians from elsewhere, bringing men of distinction in 
various lines to Bethlehem, was creditable to the community. 

Although the Philharmonic Society retrograded somewhat after its 
achievements referred to in the preceding chapter, and for some 
years' did not add any specially notable performances to its record, 
it again came to the front in ministering to the musical tastes of 
the people during the second of the three decades covered by this 
chapter. Two conspicuous names connected with its history then, 
in addition to those already mentioned, deserve a place here. Prof. 
Theodore F. Wolle', who figured among the young musicians of 
Bethlehem from 1847 to 1852, 'returned after an absence of thirteen 
years, and then, until his death in 1885, held a front place in music 

Charles N. Beckel, the place of the last-named being taken in June by his successor in the 
Board, Charles B. Daniel. 

The successor of Mr. Beckel as Secretary was Mr. Kummer. Mr. Brendle resigned and 
Charles Augustus Luckenbach was elected to fill the vacancy and succeeded Mr. Leibert as 
Treasurer, while Mr. Wolle became Preside.nt of the Board, which was composed, when the 
new building was finished, of A. Wolle, President ; M. H. Snyder, Secretary ; C. A; Lucken- 
bach, Treasurer ; C. E. Kummer. C. B. Daniel and A. Hesse. 

The following was the staff of teachers elected in July, iSyi ; A. A. Campbell, G. C. 
Souders, J. Nickum, Chas. H. Cline, Edward Cressman, Robert Lyttle, and the Misses Olivia 
Mease, Sarah Spinner, Ellen Ritter, Elma Chandlee, Emma Ritter and Virginia Huebener. 
The first janitor of the Franklin School House was Herman Schippang. 




BETHLEHEM VIEWS 
From Paintings by Grunew 



1846 1876. 709 

as a teacher in the Seminary for Young Ladies, as organist and 
- choir-master of the Moravian Cliurcli — succeeding Prof. Ernst F. 
Bleck — and in connection with the Philharmonic Society. There 
are many of his remaining musical associates and people of Bethle- 
hem generally, who will concur in the tribute due him in these 
pages. Closely associated with him for twenty years was one who 
entered the Seminary as professor of music in 1864 and is still con- 
nected with that institution, Prof. William K. Graber, organist and 
choir-master of the Church of the Holy Infancy in South Bethlehem. 
When the Philharmonic Society was re-organized in 1869, he 
became its conductor, and by his assiduous efforts brought its work 
to a standard which stood in widely acknowledged credit. His lead- 
ership is inseparably connected, in the minds of those who remem- 
ber them, with the numerous enjoyable performances of the organi- 
zation during the years of revival that followed.^" 

Another tradition of Bethlehem in the cultivation of accomplish- 
ments was perpetuated in that it did not cease, after it became a 
borough, to have those among its educators who delighted in work 
with the pencil and brush. There had been such at all periods. No 
relic remains of the work of Zinzendorf s artist, John Jacob Mueller, 
who furnished the first temporary adornment for Bethlehem's 
original chapel in the Community House, but many are the portraits 
and representations of Bible, scenes painted in oil that were left by 
good Valentine Haidt. One of the treasured views of Bethlehem 
is the work of Nicholas Garrison, Jr. Others were produced by George 
Fetter, of later times, -who also preserved the lineaments of many a 
revered face in water-color portraits : which latter filial task was, 
likewise early in the nineteenth century, performed for the pos- 
terity of manv a one by Bishop Samuel Reinke, when he was yet 
a young man. x Gustavus Grunewald, who came to Bethlehem in 
1831, taught drawing and painting in the Young Ladies' Seminary, 
from 1836 to 1866, and returned to Europe in 1868, painted many 
pictures in oil, of scenes in and about Bethlehem, which remain to 
his credit and that of the school and town. More than one person 
in the place also possesses treasured specimens of the handiwork 
of two of his prominent Bethlehem pupils One was Reuben O. 

10 In denying himself the pleasure of extending the mention of individuals among the 
singers and players on instraments to others of those years who ministered conspicuously to 
the enjoyment of music-loving people, the writer yields to the conviction that the space 
which can properly be given to this subject, as well as the limits of discretion, in view of 
their being so numerous and so recent, would be exceeded by its indulgence. 



JIO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Luckenbach, who succeeded him at the Seminary as the drawing 
and painting-master of troops of girls and even kindly and patiently 
tried to teach some clumsy theological students to draw. The other 
was the Rev. William C. Reichel, who was an artist as well as a 
student of nature and, in his day, the chief writer of local and 
neighborhood history. Rufus A. Grider, in sundry pencil and water- 
color sketches now in the Moravian archives, preserved "from 
oblivion the form and appearance of various historic buildings and 
picturesque places about the old town that have disappeared or have 
been altered beyond recognition. Another more prominent Beth- 
lehem artist, D. C. Boutelle, executed some work in oil which 
attained a distinct reputation, even among the critics, and is prized 
by those who possess pieces ; and sundry paintings by his son, 
Edward Boutelle, are preserved by Bethlehem people as creditable 
products of local talent." Many interesting pictures of buildings and 
places about Bethlehem made during the years here in review, 
existing in the form of lithograph, steel-plate or wood-cut, to be 
found in collections or as illustrations in the pages of publications, 
were the work of artists from other places. 

An easy transition from education and culture to more material 
business activity may be made in some reference to the press of 
Bethlehem, historically within the compass of this chapter, for 
viewed in different aspects it lies in both of those domains. It is a 
remarkable fact that Bethlehem had no established printing-press 
prior to 1830, when Henry Held, son-in-law of Joseph Till, the shoe- 
maker, who sold vinegar and was dubbed "Vinegar Till," began to 
do printing, in which occupation his better-known sons, the brothers 
Julius W. Held and William Held, were also later engaged. After 
the early achievements of John Brandmiller, the first printer in the 
Forks of the Delaware, referred to in a former chapter, and a little 



II This by no means completes the list of those who might be mentioned among teachers 
and amateurs. One of the valuable sketches of Bethlehem localities now greatly changed, 
South Main Street, east side from the church up towards Market Street, half a century ago, 
was made by the late Bishop A. A. Reinke and has been recently reproduced in tints by the 
Rev. Eugene Leibert, of Nazareth, whose choice rural views in water colors are in much 
repute. It is among the collections of such matter in the archives, which possess several 
specimens of local interest from other sources, one of these being a portrait of the old 
organist, John Christian Till, by H. E. Brown. The largest number of pictures there 
gathered, in the line of local_topography and notable scenes, are, of course, products of the 
photographer's art, in more recent times, from the days of Osborne, Kleckner and Stuber to 
the present skillful professionals and amateurs diligently adding to the town's store. 




MAIN STREET, 1862 
West Side 
East Side 



1846 1876. 711 

work done at Bethlehem for a brief season by the famous Henry 
Miller on one of the small presses which he transferred from place 
to place before he settled in Philadelphia, all the Bethlehem printing 
was done by contract elsewhere, until the advent of the Helds. 
Prior to that time, miscellaneous job printing was not a branch of 
business which the authorities of Bethlehem would have deemed it 
desirable to have carried on in the town. In order to make it profit- 
able the degree of discrimination in the kind of work permissible, 
which they would have insisted on, could not have been observed, 
and the Moravian printing was not sufficient to incur the expense 
of maintaining a printing office. The first Moravian publicatioti 
ofHcially issued at Bethlehem was a quarterly, "The United Brethren's 
Missionary Intelligencer and Religious Miscellany — Published quarterly 
for the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United Brethren." It 
was founded in 1822, continued until 1849, and was printed in city 
offices. It was edited by Moravian clergy and its first printer was 
John Binns, of Philadelphia. Its successor was a monthly called 
"TIi£ Moravian Church Miscellany," from January, 1850, to Decem- 
ber, 1855. This was both edited and pubhshed at Bethlehem, the 
printer being Julius Held, with Herman Ruede, teacher at Bethle- 
hem, but printer by trade, performing the functions of office-editor 
and proof-reader during part of its latter period. Its several editors 
were Moravian clergymen. The first local newspaper was a Ger- 
man bi-weekly called Die Biene (the Bee), undertaken by Julius Held 
and then continued in partnership with his brother, William Held, 
in 1846, with Dr. Abraham L. Huebener as editor. The first num- 
ber appeared, January 3, 1846. It was not a political paper nor to 
any considerable extent a mere chronicle of town and neighborhood 
happenings. Its purpose, as it. announced under its heading, was 
"the propagation of the Kingdom of God, the advancement of pure 
morals, the improvement of educational work and the dissemination 
of useful general knowledge." It dealt, to a large extent, with 
Moravian Church affairs and missions, published many articles in the 
domain of natural history, advocated temperance reform, contained 
much interesting historical matter, treated of the most important 
events of the period — it being at the time of the Mexican War — and 
contained the advertisements of sundry Bethlehem business men. 
Dr. Huebener bought out the Held brothers in 1848, and became 
sole owner as well as editor, but it did not prosper financially, and at 
the end of 1848. he was compelled to suspend publication. The next 
in order was The Lehigh Valley Times, a weeklv with more of the 



712 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

general character of a village newspaper, founded by the late 
veteran editor, Captain Edward H. Ranch, who removed to Beth- 
lehem from Lancaster in 1852, and established the paper. It dealt 
freely with political affairs and continued to be published until 1857 — 
during the latter part of this time by Gangewere and Masslich, as it 
seems, who in the autumn of 1856, attempted the publication also of 
a German bi-weekly under the name Ackerbau Zeitung. What rela- 
tions may have existed with the publishers of the Easton Free Press 
at that time is not made quite clear by a paragraph of a correspondent 
in an issue of the next Bethlehem newspaper, TA^ Advocate, on March 
12, 1859, in which he refers to The Lehigh Valley Times as having 
"flourished a number of years" and then been "transferred over to 
the Easton Free Press, leaving Bethlehem without a newspaper." 
The first number of the weekly Bethlehem Advocate was issued, 
October 9, 1858, by Herman Ruede, editor and pubHsher. The 
existence of this paper was also brief. In 1861 it had ceased and in 
its place, Tlw Lehigh Valley Times had reappeared, published by J. D. 
Laciar. How long it continued has not been ascertained. Mean- 
while the publication of The Moravian had, at the beginning of 1859, 
been transferred from Philadelphia to Bethlehem. This was a weekly 
paper which, by action of the Provincial Synod of the Moravian 
Church, had taken the place of the monthly Moravian Church Mis- 
cellany. Its first number was issued, January i, 1856, at Phila- 
delphia." 

Herman Ruede, who had published TIic Advocate, became the 
printer of The Moravian and remained in the office until 1865, when 
Amos Comenius Clauder succeeded him. Subsequently associated with 
the latter was his brother, Henry T. Clauder, who after the death 
of the elder brother, in 1868, became his successor, as pub- 
lisher. The printing office was removed, at the end of 
October, 1865, into apartments in the rear of the store 
of Wolle, Krause and Erwin, on Main Street, with its entrance 
from Market Street. There it remained until transferred to the 
new Publication Building, March 6, 1871, when the Rev. H. A. 
Brickenstein was Secretary of Publications. The book-store had 
been removed to the adjoining Y. M. C. A. building not long after 
the completion of that structure in 1868. In the new publication 

12 Bishop Edmund de Schvveinitz, then pastor in Philadelphia, the Rev. L. F. Kamp- 
mann and the Rev. F. F. Hagen were jointly its first editors. Its printer, to the end 
of 1858, was Wm S. Young, 50 North 6th Street. Philadelphia. The Moravian Publication 
Office and book-store were at 241 Arch Street, Philadelpliia, until removed, at the close of 
1 858, to 37 Broad Street, Bethlehem. 



1846 1876. 713 

office were then concentrated, before the end of 1871, the printing 
office, the book-store and the old bindery, in charge of Anton Hesse. 
They have all remained in that building to the present time. In 
1866, the publication of the new German Moravian Church paper 
called Der Brucder Botschaftcr, and at first issued bi-weekly, com- 
menced. It had been preceded by a monthly, from 1854 to 1861, 
called Das Bnicdcr Blatt. Later periodicals issued from the Mora- 
vian Publication Office at Bethlehem are The Little Mmzowary, started 
in 1871, and Der Missions Freund, 1889.^" On January 27, 1866, was 
printed on the press of The Moravian, the first number of Tlie Beth- 
lehem Chronicle, a new secular weekly, successor of The Lehigh Valley 
Times. Its publishers were D. J. Godshalk and William Eichman. 
The latter withdrew six months later and D. J. Godshalk and Co. 
continued to publish it as The Lehigh Valley Chronicle \o the end of 
the first year. Then, on February 4, 1867, they issued the first 
number of the first daily newspaper attempted in Bethlehem, The 
Daily Times. In 1869, the late Owen B. Sigley, who had worked in 
the offices of The Moravian and The Daily Times, founded, with the 
co-operation of several leading men on the south side, under the 
firm name of Owen B. Sigley and Co., The Weekly Progress, with 
Daniel E. Schoedler, previous^ connected with the Bethlehem public 
schools, as editor. Another weekly. The Northampton Conservative, 
started September 30, 1868, by M. F. Gushing, had an ephemeral 
existence on the south side. On April 3, 1871, The Progress began 
to be issued as a morning daily ; The Times having, from the first, 
been an evening paper. In April, 1872, The Morning Progress estab- 
lished. its office in the new "Anthracite Building," with Charles Hol- 
land Kidder as its new editor. In March, 1874, the paper passed 
into the hands of C. O. Ziegenfuss, previously connected with the 
Times, who secured control of the consolidated weekly. Spirit of the 
Times and Northampton Ediicator, that had been issued for a while 
from the office of the Daily Times, and named it The Weekly Standard. 
For a short time in April, 1874, the Times and Progress united their 
fortunes, but before the end of that month the Times resumed its 
distinct character on the north side, and the south side paper ceased. 
Subsequently appeared The Star, first, January 18, 1877, as a morn- 
ing daily started by A. F. Yost, then as a weekly and then as an 
evening daily, of which D. J. Godshalk, founder and first editor of 

13 T/te Moravian and Little Missionary continue to be published at Betlileliem ; the 
Brueder Botschafter and Missions Fretind, since 1898, at Watertown, Wis. 



714 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the Times, became the proprietor, publishing it for some years. 
Meanwhile, in 1894, a new daily which had no kind of historical con- 
nection with any of the preceding, .The South Bethlehem Globe, made 
its appearance. As for the oldest of the existing three newspapers 
of the Bethlehems, the advance of the enterprise from its unpreten- 
tious beginning in the old Eggert house, where the building of the 
Lehigh Valley National Bank now stands, and then in its well- 
remembered Broad Street quarters, on to the extensive business of 
the Times Publishing Company in the present commodious and well- 
equipped building, is, like the development of the paper itself from 
the first issue in 1867 to The Bethlehem Times of now, in line with the 
general progress of the town.^* 

According to records preserved, the population of Bethlehem 
increased in ten years, after it was incorporated as a Borough, to 
twice the number of inhabitants it then had, and in December, 1858, 
the figures were set at 2,500. Among the public improvements of 
those years, an important one was the introduction of gas, which 
was lighted on the principal streets the first time on July 13, 1854. 
The Bethlehem Gas Company was incorporated, February 7, 1853, 
by Philip H. Goepp, C. A. Luckenbach, Sylvester Wolle, A. W. Rad- 
'ley, James T. Borhek, William Wilson, Rufus A. Grider, James 
Rice, John M. Miksch, W. T. Roepper, Charles W. Ranch, A. E. 
McCarty and James Leibert. Its first directors, elected in May, 
were C. A. Luckenbach, P. H. Goepp, A. W. Radley, W. Wilson, 
Jacob Rice, Matthew Krause, Ambrose H. Ranch, Sylvester Wolle 
and J. T. Borhek. They organized by electing C. A. Luckenbach, 
President, J. T. Borhek, Secretary, and Matthew Krause, Treasurer. 
Ambrose H. Ranch became Superintendent of the works and con- 
tinued to fill the position, supervising all of the successive enlarge- 
ments and improvements, until the corporation, after existing nearly 
half a century, was merged in the Wyandotte Gas Company. The 
water and fire departments, as they existed during those years, have 
been referred to in connection with earlier mention. No addition 
was made to the old organizations for fighting fire until October 26, 
1866, when the Nisky Hook and Ladder Company was formed, with 
Henry J. Seaman as President, Theodore F. Levers. Secretary, and 
Isaac Walp, Treasurer. The streets of the town that had been 

14 The above items gathered from many original sources, among others the files and parts 
of files of the several publications referred to which are preserved in the Moravian Archives, 
would, where desirable, have been more exact as to dates and other points in the case of 
some former newspapers mentioned if data had been obtainable. 




JACOB LEWIS DOSTER BENJAMIN EGGERT 

CHARLES AUGUSTUS LUCKENBACH 
JAMES GOTTHOLD LEIBERT HENRY BENJAMIN LUCKENBACH 



1846 18/6. 715 

officially laid out and named up to 1858, have all been mentioned. 
On December 20 of that year, the Borough Council, for the first 
time, made the names of ten of the existing alleys official. The 
report of the committee which was adopted describes them as they 
yet exist with the names they now bear. They are, in the order 
given, Goundie's, Rubel's, Cunow's, School, Gas, Long, Guetter's, 
Raspberry, Steinman's Alleys and Spruce Alley, declared a street. 
Cedar Alley was first erected into a street, April 15, 1867. 

During the decade following the incorporation of the Borough, 
notwithstanding the disappearance of so much that was unique and 
the substitution of so many ordinary town ways, there was yet enough 
about Bethlehem of the former attractions for city people, that it 
continued to be a favorite summer resort, with its hotels usually 
filled during- "the season." Of these there were, prior to i860, six 
in Bethlehem and at the catial, varying in their character from those 
most pretentious, catering to gentility, to those which were quite like 
the better sort of village and cross-road taverns so numerous about 
the country. The, old Sun, after an unsuccessful attempt by the 
Moravian Congregation authorities to get the consent of the voting 
members to its sale in 1849, was finally sold in 1851 to C. A. Luck- 
enbach, who disposed of a part interest to John Anderson, of New 
York, after which it was enlarged and refitted. In 1856, opened the 
administration of one of its most famous proprietors, James Leibert, 
who deceased in October, 1863. The following spring, the property 
was sold to Rufus A. Grider, who, in 1868, disposed of it to Charles 
Brodhead, its present owner. The Eagle, so long conducted by 
Caleb Yohe, did not pass into other hands until 1874, when it was 
purchased by George H. Myers, closed for extensive improvements, 
from April to July of that year, and then reopened by its lessee, 
George Hoppes, a well-known landlord previously of the Gettysburg 
Springs Hotel and formerly of the Mansion House of Mauch Chunk. 
The Anchor Hotel at the canal, for which, in July, 1845, ^ second 
lease for five years had been made to Andrew McCarty, and which, 
about 1850, received its next name, the South Bethlehem House, 
finallv came into the hands of Herman Fetter, whose name, as that 
of a far-famed host, became permanently connected with it. The 
Pennsvlvania House, built early in the fifties by George Steinman, 
on the south side of the canal — the present Keystone House — had as 
its first landlord George Meitzler, and, in 1858, Mr. Barnes. The next 
vear its proprietors, Leidy and Gernet, succumbed to financial stress. 
In April, 1861, Jesse Miller, of Mauch Chunk, began to dispense hos- 



7l6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

pitality there, and in 1862, its proprietor, George Steinman, was one of 
those whose property suffered from the raging flood to which refer- 
ence will further be made. The American House, one of the numerous 
buildings erected in the early fifties by John J. Levers — for two 
terms during its first decade in charge of Job Pharo, and then given 
the name Bethlehem House for a few years until its first name was 
restored — was purchased, early in 1861, by Israel O. Dissosway of 
Staten Island, a former New York Custom House official. It was 
conducted for a while by his two sisters as a select boarding-house, 
and then, in 1862, was enlarged and fitted up by him as a regular hotel. 
The next year it passed out of the hands of Mr. Dissosway into those 
of George Schweitzer, of the Union House, at Broad and Centre 
Streets, where, already prior to that time, entertainment for man 
and beast had been furnished. The many "summer guests," who in 
those years strolled about the environs of Bethlehem, seeking such 
picturesque spots as industries and freshets had spared in their old 
beauty — the era of modern man-made attractions had not yet 
dawned — always found the Island — then, with reason, called Catalpa 
Island, previously and again since, without reason, called Calypso 
Island — one of the most charming resorts. Already before i860, the 
fleet of pleasure-boats controlled by Henry Fahs and his sons 
yielded a modest revenue and this more classic mode of conveyance 
had a monopoly until, in 1873, Wier's rope ferry began wholesale 
business between the north bank and the Island. Then, in 1874, 
steam navigation opened when, in June of that year, the Calypso, 
plying between that resort and the south side — predecessor of the 
Lotta, remembered by more persons — was "christened" in the regu- 
lation Christ-profaning manner of naming merchant-vessels, battle- 
ships, steam-boats, yachts, tugs and dredges. The new business 
enterprises which appear upon the scene during the decade following 
the incorporation of the Borough, are so numerous that a detailed 
reference to them would hardly be expected and would not be prac- 
ticable. Two that were slightly out of the ordinary lines, founded 
before the borough history began and not yet alluded to, may be 
mentioned. One was the piano-factory, which ceased to exist soon 
after the time to which this chapter runs, and, by many present resi- 
dents of Bethlehem, not known to have been for many years one of 
the industries of the town. John Christian Till, the organist, who 
was both a musician and an expert in fine cabinet-work, made sundry 
pianos ; one of his latest contracts being to place one in the parlor of 
each of the hotels, the Sun and the Eagle. In 1830, the establish- 



1846 1876. -jl-j 

ment of a piano-factory was had in mind in connection witli negotia- 
tions for the lease of ground by George Haus, at the south-east 
corner of Broad and New Streets. In 1837, John Christian ^lal- 
thaner, a piano-maker from New York, encouraged by C. A. Luck- 
enbach to settle at Bethlehem, came to the place with his family and 
had his first home and shop in the stone house at the west side of 
the grist-mill, which was then jVIr. Luckenbach's property. He was 
among those who were driven from their houses by the flood of 1841. 
For a while he then occupied quarters in the Old Economy house 
on Main Street. He had brought with him from New York an 
unfinished piano, which was the first instrument he turned out at 
Bethlehem. It is still in existence and is not yet beyond being used. 
In 1842, he applied for lot No. 23 on the east side of New Street, 
near Broad. There, after all the agreements and stipulations about 
the building and other matters then yet required, had been arranged, 
he erected a suitable structure and opened the widely-known factory 
which he carried on until his death in 1873, after which his sons con- 
tinued it some years longer. The other establishment referred to 
was the copper and brass-working shop and subsequent brass- 
foundry, opened in 1832 by Ernst L. Lehman, well known in his day 
among the musicians and leading citizens of Bethlehem, like his son 
and successor, the late Bernhard E. Lehman, who became the owner 
and occupant of the premises at the north-west corner of JMarket 
and New Streets. From there he transferred the foundry and shop, 
in 1864, to the south side, and developed them into the substantial 
industry so long known under his name, and yet existing among the 
establishments that, in the course of fifty years, have taken the place 
of the more quiet agricultural activities which had been suppl3ang so 
large a part of Bethlehem's subsistence for a hundred vears. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Three Decades of Progress Continued. 
1846— 1876. 

The town of about fifteen hundred people that had grown up, at 
the period last referred to in the preceding chapter, on the farms 
across the river; the smoke of f'urnaces, the rumble of mills, the 
shriek of locomotive whistles and the rushing of railway trains up 
and down the valley had for some years attracted attention, as the 
most conspicuous product of the new era that opened after the incor- 
poration of the Borough of Bethlehem. 

The bulk of the land sold by Administrator Goepp, in 1847, con- 
sisted of the four farms on the south side commonly spoken of as 
"The Fuehrer Farm," embracing the nearer portion of what is now 
called Fountain Hill and its north-eastern descent to and including 
the premises of the old Crown Inn; "The Luckenbach Farm," adjoin- 
ing it to the east and extending down the river ; "The Jacobi Farm," 
which lay south of this one along the sloping upland to the base of 
the mountain, from about the present Five Points eastward far down 
into the heart of the town ; and "The Hoffert Farm," stretching of? 
to the south-west, over the farther part of Fountain Hill, down to the 
Emmaus Road and up to the present premises of the hospital and 
Bishopthorpe School and beyond to the Fountain Hill Cemetery.^ 
The original Hoffert farm-house stood far up the hill-side, a short 
distance north of east from Bishopthorpe. The Fuehrer farm-house 
was the Crown Inn. The Luckenbach farm-house near by, a little 
east, was replaced in 1849 by a brick house, which was eventually 
made to do duty as a railroad office building. The little stone house 
of the Jacobi farm is yet standing, with modern alterations, at the 
corner of Brodhead Avenue and Fourth Street. Excepting the 
buildings pertaining to those farms and several of the old log cabins. 



I Those who desire a more complete and exact delineation of the metes and bounds of 
those old farms, from the view-point of modern topography, will find it worked out with 
care in appendix 5 and map of The Crown Inn, by Wm. C. Reichel, 1872. Their par- 
tition and the conveyances of portions to different parties during the first years after their 
sale are also there set forth in detail. 

718 



1846 18/6. 7^9 

the only improvements within their bounds when the great sale was 
made in 1847, were those under way for the famous Hydropathic 
Institute — or in the sterling English of plain folk, the Water-Cure — 
projected in 1843, by Franz Heinrich Oppelt, who had come from 
Europe ; a man of former Moravian connection, which he resumed at 
Bethlehem. In June, 1843, he wrote to the Supervising Board of the 
village : "The excellent water of the Lehigh Mountain and the prox- 
imity of Bethlehem, where patients could purchase or have made all 
necessaries, and those less seriously ailing could also secure board 
and lodging, has awakened in me the desire to establish a hydro- 
pathic institute if I could buy the springs and the necessary ground." 
He secured the use, rent free, that year, of a little over two acres on 
the mountain side which he began to improve and then purchased in 
April, 1846. Soon after that, he opened the Water-Cure, which 
acquired celebrit}', not only as a sanitarium for invalids, but also as 
a delightful summer-resort, with its magnificent view to the east and 
north. It was visited, at times, by people of note. The locality got 
the name Oppeltsville, and beginning, September 22, 1850, when 
Bishop Van Vleck officiated there the first time, stated services were 
held there by the Moravian clergy of Bethlehem for a few years, 
during the months when numerous guests were sojourning at the 
place. 

In 1845, Daniel Desh had purchased somewhat more than an acre, 
just across the river, on the west side of the road near the bridge, 
where the old ferry house stood, and in 1846, another piece west of 
that, up the hill where the large railroad office buildings now stand. 
With the exception of these several parcels previously secured by 
Oppelt and Desh, the entire body of land included in the four farms 
conveyed to Philip H. Goepp in 1847, was, soon after that, sold by 
him, to Charles Augustus Luckenbach, to whom the deeds were 
made on April i, 1848. The latter did not long retain possession of 
the whole. In the spring of 1848, he sold the entire Fuehrer farm to 
Daniel Desh, whose previous purchases lay in that tract, and a little 
more than 103 acres embraced in the Jacobi farm to Joseph Hess. 
The entire Hoffert farm was also disposed of in parcels to Charles 
and Oliver Tombler and F. H. Oppelt. In 1850 and 1851, the 
Tombler purchases were conveyed, in part, to Daniel C. Freitag, but 
the larger portion to Augustus Fiot, of Philadelphia, who added a 
tract of wood-land — another purchase — and established an attractive 
country-seat, which he named Fontainebleau. This, after passing 
through other ownerships, became eventually, with the Freitag pur- 



720 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

cliase, the propert}' of Tinsley Jeter, who thus, b}- successive j)ur- 
chases, acquired the entire Hoffert farm, apart from what was owned 
by Oppelt. In 1854, Daniel Desh disposed of his holdings — the 
Fuehrer farm — to Rudolph Kent, of Philadelphia, who sold ten acres, 
embracing the site of the old Crown Inn, to the North Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company and laid out the rest in town lots, covering the 
whole of east and north Fountain Hill. In 1852, C. A. Luckenbach, 
having, for the time being, retained the Luckenbach Farm, east of 
the former inn along the river, planned a town-plot which he named 
Augusta. He disposed of sundry parcels to different purchasers, the 
largest, upwards of 97 acres, to Charles W. and Ambrose H. Ranch, 
in 1854. In the summer of that year, Charles Brodhead purchased 
the Jacobi Farm, 103 acres, of Joseph Hess, and the portion of the 
Luckenbach Farm held by the Rauchs, enlarged the town plot and 
gave it the name Wetherill, in honor of John Price Wetherill, of 
Philadelphia. In 1855, however, Mr. Brodhead reconveyed to the 
Messrs. Ranch the tract purchased of them. 

Meanwhile, operations had commenced on a portion of the former 
Luckenbach Farm that were indicative of what that vicinity on the 
south bank of the river was to become. A strange mineral in the 
Saucon Valley that had attracted attention for more than twenty 
years, was examined in 1845, by William Theodore Roepper, of Beth- 
lehem, and by him first ascertained to be calamine — the hydro-silicate 
of zinc. An association, formed to mine and work the deposit, 
secured a site on the Luckenbach tract for the necessary buildings, 
the first of which were erected in 1853, and, on October 13 of that 
year, produced there the first white oxide of zinc. The buildings 
were burned out in the following December but were soon restored, 
and operations progressed. May 2, 1855, the Pennsylvania and 
Lehigh Zinc Company was incorporated. Samuel Wetherill and 
Charles T. Gilbert had charge of the works from the beginning to 
September, 1857. In 1854, and the year following, Mr. Wetherill 
experimented in another building, near by, until he succeeded in 
producing the first spelter or metallic zinc, but the problem of cheap- 
ening the process to the extent of making it practicable remained to 
be solved. In 1859, Joseph Wharton, who managed the works from 
September. 1857, to September, i860, contracted with Belgian experts 
for the construction of works to manufacture spelter, and for their 
operation. This was successfully inaugurated in July, 1859. It may 
yet be added, to complete this reference to the famous zinc works, 
that the third department of manufacture was introduced in 1865, 




JOHN LERCH SAMUEL BRUNNER 

JAMES ALEXANDER RICE 
DANIEL DESH JACOB LUCKENBACH 



1846 1876. 721 

when, in April, tlie first sheet zinc rolled in America was produced. 
The corporate title of the company was changed in i860, to The 
Lehigh Zinc Company. During the superintendency of Benjamin C. 
Webster, the largest steam-engine and pump in the country were put 
into operation, January 19, 1872, at the mines of the company at 
Friedensville. This great engine, named the President, has lately, 
after long standing idle, been dismantled, the ore being latterly 
all produced in the mines at Franklin, New Jerse}'. In 1881, the 
works were purchased by a new company called the Lehigh Zinc and 
Iron Company, the manufacture of spiegeleisen from some elements 
of the ore being added to the operations. 

Other activities of more extensive connection, and locally more 
revolutionizing, were in progress along the south bank of the Lehigh. 
In the very year with which this chapter opens, April 21, 1846, was 
chartered, by act of Legislature, "The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill 
and Susquehanna Railroad Company," modified in title by supple- 
mental act, January 7, 1853, to "The Lehigh Valley Railroad .Com- 
pany.'_' _ With this enterprise — the natural outcome of the pioneer 
activities in the anthracite coal regions half a century before, treated 
of in the preceding chapter — one name stands connected, pre-eminent 
in the modern development of the Lehigh Valley ; the name of Asa 
Packer. In 1852, the main line of this railroad was located, from 
•Easton to Alauch Chunk, and work was commenced in November 
of that year, under Robert H. Sayre, Chief Engineer. The greatest 
change it wrought near Bethlehem was along the river bank west 
of the bridge. The picturesque resort around "the big spring," at 
the foot of the blufif across from the eastern end of the island, was 
ruined. The spring, yet remembered by many, was kept open and 
curbed with stones for a number of years, reminding people of the 
old-time beauties of the place. But now, for many years, it has 
been choked and buried under successive dumps of cinder and broken 
stone." The last week in April, 1855, the rails were laid along the 
river east of the bridge. On June 4, the first locomotive passed 
Bethlehem, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, and many 
people assembled to witness the novel sight ; but not so many as 
gathered on June 9, when the first passenger car was drawn over the 
track by the construction train. When the first passenger train 
passed from Easton to Allentown on June 11, it was given an ovation 

2 There exists a sketch of the place as it formerly was, painted by Rufus A. Grider. 
47 



722 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

— nearly the entire population of the town turning out en masse. On 
September 12, the road was open for service to Mauch Chunk and, 
September 15, the first train of coal cars came down the valley. The 
first station and office were opened in the brick house of 1849, on the 
Luckenbach Farm, mentioned before, which was later (1864-1870) 
enlarged for additional office room. 

Two years after the consummation of that undertaking Bethlehem 
became the terminus of another railroad, built from Philadelphia by 
a corporation chartered, April 2, 1852, under the title "The Phila- 
delphia, Easton and Water Gap Railroad Company," which was 
changed the next year to "The North Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany." Its construction was commenced that year. Originally it 
was built to Freemansburg. The construction-train first ran through 
to that terminus, December 24, 1856, followed by the first passenger 
car, December 26. The first passenger train came through from 
Philadelphia, January i, 1857. In June the track was laid from Iron 
Hill to the new terminus on the south side at Bethlehem, and the 
first train ran through to this station, July i, 1857. A week later, 
the passenger trains stopped running over the Freemansburg section 
and all ran to Bethlehem. Then a station was constructed, in 1859, 
at the junction with the Lehigh Valley line, where the old ferry-house 
stood. The historic Crown Inn was doomed when the tracks of 
the North Pennsylvania line were located at the terminus, for it 
stood right in the way. The building was sold to David I. Yerkes for 
$30. He used most of its timber in building what was later called 
the Continental Hotel, on Second Street near New Street.' The 
site of the old hostelry is marked by a memorial stone placed as 
near the spot as possible, at the south-east corner of the platform 
of the union passenger station, erected for the joint use of the two 
roads in 1867, and opened on November 18 of that year. When the 
North Pennsylvania railroad was finished the era of the mail-stage 
from Bethlehem to Philadelphia and intermediate points closed. John 
David Whitesell, long proprietor of the old stage line in its latter 
days — the successor of his father, Andrew Whitesell — died at Beth- 
lehem, in 1854, while the railroads were being built, and was not 
permitted to see the new mode of conveyance inaugurated. 



.1 A writer later suggested that the name of the old inn which furnished timber for the new 
one, should have been retained, but perhaps Mr. Verkes thought farther than the newspaper 
man, for did not the Continental Army and the Continental Congress supersede the Crown 
in the American colonies ? 



1846 1876. 723 

While these great enterprises were being planned, schemes for 
working iron at Bethlehem in a larger way than at the old Beckel 
foundry were afloat, prior to the establishment of a second foundry 
and machine shop by Abbott and Cortright on the south side in 1857. 
In April, 1849, the Supervising Board of the Moravian Congregation 
had under consideration an application for the purchase or lease of 
ground along the canal for an "anthracite furnace." The site in view 
was "between the Anchor Hotel and the east basin on the south 
side of the new road" (present Lehigh Avenue). Terms were dis- 
cussed, and in July it was resolved to sell the land "from the tavern 
to the aqueduct between the canal and the Monocacy, including the 
marsh meadow, on both sides of the new street, to Mr. Noble," for 
$2700, "reserving for Dosters and the Water Company" their rights 
along the bank of the Monocacy. The decision being subject to 
the concurrence of the Elders' Conference, failed to meet their 
approval, on account of the proximity of the proposed site to the 
Young Ladies' Seminary. Administrator Goepp, who favored the 
sale and believed that in course of time an unsuitable environment 
would inevitably crowd upon the school premises, broached the idea 
of ultimately transferring the institution to a new site on Nisky Hill, 
and then this and the cemetery project seem to have become for a 
while competitive schemes in official circles. There were among the 
people decided opinions for and against the sale of land for an iron 
furnace at that point and nothing came of it. 

In August. 1849, similar propositions by "the Messrs. Jones, of 
Philadelphia." and Samuel Lewis, of the new Allentown furnace, were 
considered, having sites farther up the canal in view, but did not 
result in an agreement. Mr. Lewis entertained the thought of 
purchasing "twenty acres along the canal from the upper basin north- 
ward." 

While such projects for new iron industries were further slum- 
bering, the actual beginning of the long-mooted railroad to run along 
the south bank of the Lehigh naturally suggested to men's minds 
that further such developments would arise on that side of the river. 
While various schemes were being talked of by the men already 
mentioned who had acquired the real estate on the south side, and 
by others, like Augustus Wolle, one of the enterprising and far- 
sighted men of the time, who also made considerable purchases while 
parcels on the Luckenbach Farm were first changing hands, a flutter 
was caused in the summer of 1854, by the circulation of a rumor that 
— as one record states it — "the United States foundry was to be 



724 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

established south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem." A private chronicle 
of the time notes, in substantiation of the rumor, that "Mr. Charles 
Brodhead, a nephew of the Senator (Richard Brodheadj, had bought 
two farms" on the south side. The facts, as derived from first 
sources, are the following: During the years 1854 and 1855, Mr. 
Brodhead, having made the purchases of land on the south side 
already referred to, endeavored, through his uncle, Richard Brod- 
head, United States Senator, to secure the location of a government 
foundry on the site of the former Luckenbach Farm. Jefferson 
Davis, then Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Pierce, 
favored the project and recommended it to the attention of Congress. 
The cofiimittee of the Senate reported in favor of it, but the plan 
failed to secure Congressional action on account of conflicting inter- 
ests in the matter of a location. Then the original mover was 
induced by Augustus Wolle to join with him in laying the foundation 
of another enterprise, which he and others had in view, and which 
eventually took the place of that one on the proposed site. Mr. Wolle 
had acquired possession of the deposit of iron ore known as the 
Gangewere mine and was proceeding to develop the property. He 
formed an organization to erect a blast furnace on the Saucon Creek, 
at the mine, and secured incorporation, April 8, 1857, under the 
name of "The Saucona Iron Company." He had, meanwhile, pur- 
chased the large portion of the Luckenbach Farm which Mr. Brod- 
head had conveyed back to Charles W. and Ambrose H. Ranch. 
Mr. Wolle was persuaded by Mr. Brodhead of the advisability of 
erecting the works south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem, rather than 
at the mine, and of having the Company authorized "to make and 
manufacture iron into any shape, form and condition, instead of 
limiting its output to that of simply a blast furnace." With Mr. 
Wolle's consent and approval, Mr. Brodhead drafted a supplement to 
the charter of the Company, embodying this expansion and changing 
its name to that of "The Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Com- 
pany." This supplement became a law on March 31, 1857. Sub- 
scriptions were then started, the first subscriber being Augustus 
Wolle with the largest amount. The second was Charles Brodhead, 
and the next were Charles W. Ranch, Ambrose H. Ranch and 
Charles B. Daniel. All were Bethlehem men. 

These subscriptions, together with one by the Moravian Congre- 
gation, were all that were gotten for several years, in consequence 
of the financial crisis of the time. In 1859, efforts were renewed 
and in June, i860, the services of John Fritz, the noted iron-master. 



1846 1876. 725 

of Johnstown, were secured to superintend the construction and 
then the operation of the works. The confidence inspired by this 
move resulted in the rapid raising of the required capital. On June 
14, i860, the Company elected the first Board of Directors who, on 
July 7, organized with Alfred Hunt, President ; Augustus WoUe, 
Asa Packer, John Taylor Johnston, John Knecht, Edward Roberts, 
Charles B. Daniel and Charles W. Rauch, Directors ; Charles B. 
Daniel, Secretary and Treasurer. The corporate title was again 
changed by Act of Legislature, Alay i, 1861, to "The Bethlehem Iron 
Company." Ground was broken for the first furnace, July 16, 1861, 
but then, in consequence of the outbreak of the Civil War, operations 
lagged and were not resumed with energy until the latter part of 
1S62. Fire to start the first blast furnace was lighted, January 4, 
1863, and the next day the blast was put on. The rolling mill, com- 
menced in the spring of 1861, was finished in the summer of 1863. 
The first iron was puddled, July 27, and the first rails — for the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad — were rolled, September 26, of that year. The 
second furnace, commenced in May, 1864, was completed in March, 
1867, and the first iron was drawn on the 30th of that month. The 
original machine shop was built and equipped in 1865, and the foundry 
in 1868. A furnace in process of construction by the Northampton 
Iron Company a little distance to the south-east of the new works 
and called The Northampton Furnace, was put into blast in Decem- 
ber, 1868, after this company had been merged with the Bethlehem 
Iron Company the previous September, and was afterwards known 
as furnace No. 3, in the succession of six eventually built or pur- 
chased. The erection of the large steel mill was commenced in 
September, 1868. The first heat of Bessemer steel was there blown, 
October 4. 1873, and the first steel rail was rolled, October 18. At 
this stage the plant stood at the period to which this chapter extends. 
Thus originated the enormous works which, after the lapse of thirty 
years, covered an area a mile and a quarter long and a quarter of 
a mile wide, having twenty-five acres of the space under roof, includ- 
ing the added works for producing government ordnance and armor- 
plate as well as the heaviest forgings and castings of every kind 
required on land and water. Erected and equipped at a cost of more 
than $5,000,000, containing among other notable features, manufac- 
tured at the spot, the largest hammer ever constructed, these works 
have fulfilled on a vast scale the thoughts of 1854, and have become 
famous beyond the bounds of the United States. The whole, from 
the first blast furnace to these latest magnificent achievements, was 



726 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

designed, erected and put into successful operation by the Company's 
first Chief Engineer and General Superintendent, Mr. John Fritz, 
whom the men of his craft in Europe and America have united in 
according a foremost place among the great engineers of the world.* 
About the time when the first furnace of the Iron Company was 
being built, a period of much activity in the purchase of town-lots and 
the erection of buildings on the south side opened. In 1858, the 
Messrs. Charles Brodhead and Augustus Wolle, when making deeds 
for lots, began to designate the property as in "the southern addition 
to the Borou'gh of Bethlehem." Both of the previous names, Augusta 
and Wetherill, were discarded and there seemed to be an anticipation 
of a time when a group of sundry Bethlehems would arise, prepar- 
atory to a yet more remote time when a natural and sensible develop- 
ment would consolidate them as one greater Bethlehem. Then the 
new town got its third name, Bethlehem South — this particular form 
distinguishing it from that section on the north side which was then 
yet commonly known as South Bethlehem. In 1865, the long-felt 
necessity of a borough organization led to action, and by decree of 
Court in August, such incorporation was authorized. The name 
South Bethlehem was chosen. The first borough election was held, 
September 19, 1865, at the Continental Hotel, with David I. Yerkes 
as Judge of Election. The first Burgess elected was James McMahon. 
The first Councilmen were Lewis F. Beckel, James McCoy, James 
Purcell, E. P. Wilbur and David I. Yerkes. In June of the next 
year, a separate post-office was established with John Seem as the 
first postmaster. Already in 1864, in anticipation of a rapidly growing 
town, a few of the men who were preminently connected with the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Bethlehem Iron Company and other 
important enterprises, and had established their residence in the new 
place, had, along with other foundation-laying movements, procured 
a charter of incorporation for a company to supply light and water 

4 It is not the purpose of these pages to follow out the history of any of the great indus- 
tries nor of the churches, schools and other institutions of the Bethlehems that have come 
into existence in modern times, but rather to merely sketch their beginnings. More 
than this would not only require treatment of things outside the province of the writer, but 
would be impossible on account of the magnitude of the matter involved. Much of this, 
moreover, is recent and comprises facts well-known by all or easily obtainable from numer-, 
ous sources, or is not yet settled into fixed shape in historical retrospect. These things may 
properly be left for writers of future years to compile, after they have receded farther into 
the back-ground like those which now stand anterior to the personal recollection and par- 
ticipation of present actors on the scenes. 




MERIT ABBOTT IRA CORTRIGHT 

SAMUEL WETHERILL 
JAMES THEODORE BORHEK BENJAMIN WILHELM 



1846 1876. -JIJ 

to the town. It was named The Bethlehem South Gas and Water 
Company. The incorporators were E. P. Wilbur, Robert H. Sayre, 
William H. Sayre, John Smylie, James McMahon and H. Stanley 
Goodwin.^ They organized in 1867, with Mr. Wilbur as President, 
and Mr. Goodwin as Secretary and Treasurer and Bernard E. 
Lehman was elected Superintendent. Under his direction the 
original gas works were at once erected and the first gas was 
made before the end of that year. In the matter of a water 
supply, it is to be noted that, prior to this, Tinsley Jeter had con- 
structed a small reservoir to utilize the spring water above Fontaine- 
bleau, and laid pipes to supply some of the Fountain Hill residences, 
even down to the railway station, and that five years after the organ- 
ization of the above company, another called The Cold Spring Water 
Company was formed by the late Dr. G. B. Linderman, but its service 
did not extend beyond private requirements. The surviving company 
began to supply South Bethlehem with water by pumping from the 
river in 1875. Since that time its resources have been very much 
enlarged and another projected company. The Mountain Water Com- 
pany, secured a charter in 1894. The Fire Department of the south 
side had its beginning in the formation of the company called "Cen- 
tennial Hose, No. I," July 31, 1875. This was followed by "The 
Liberty Fire Company," May 3, 1876. "The Lehigh Hook and 
Ladder Company" was organized later — November 25, 1884. Others 
are still more recent. 

South side newspapers have been sufficiently referred to in treating 
of the local press generally in one connection. The educational work 
of South Bethlehem has grown from the most humble begin- 
ning to an extent and character of which its people may with reason 
feel proud. When the Borough was incorporated, it contained the 
little brick school-house built in 1858, between the present Locust 
and Elm Streets, near the line of what is now Packer Avenue, and 
another small one built in i860, in a field, some distance east of that 
and nearer the river. For a while an adjunct school was also kept in 

5 The first three of these gentlemen, with the late Mr. McMahon, South Bethlehem's first 
Burgess, lived to see the extensive results which, at the close of the century, had issued from 
the various beginnings made in those years, in local enterprises as well as in the large general 
interests so intimately connected with the progress of the town and with which they have 
been so closely identified from the first. Their names have, from that time, been inseparably 
connected with the great mining, manufacturing and transportation activities of the Lehigh 
Valley, as well as with the material advancement of South Bethlehem and with its educa- 
tional, charitable and ecclesiastical work. Mr. Goodwin was Burgess nearly twenty years. 



728 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the grain-house of A. Wolle & Co., at the north-west corner of New 
and Second Streets." In 1869, the Penrose school-house was built 
on Vine Street, and remained in use until replaced by the; Central 
High School building in 1892. The next was the Melrose building, 
off to the east on the hill, at what is now the corner of Fourth and 
Poplar Streets. A High School was opened in 1872, in a room of the 
Penrose building, where it was continued until transferred, in 1886, 
to the Excelsior building on Fourth Street, erected in 1879, and 
enlarged in 1885. The Webster and Packer buildings have been 
erected since the consolidation and unification of the school-system 
of the Borough under a Superintendent in 1889, which was a very 
important and beneficial step. 

While the public schools of the south side were yet in the days 
of small things, the very year in which the Borough was incor- 
porated, there suddenly loomed up the prospect of a seat of learning 
which, like the great works of the Bethlehem Iron Company, has 
made South Bethlehem famous, even in far distant parts. In July, 
1865, the announcement went forth that the Hon. Asa Packer pro- 
posed to crown his successful enterprises and public benefits in the 
Lehigh Valley by founding, "in Bethlehem South," a great poly- 
technic institute ; to devote $500,000 and fifty-seven acres of land 
lying along the upper border of the new town at the base of the 
mountain to this purpose, and to call it the Lehigh University. Its 
story is well-known and may be read in many a publication. The 
munificent founder later added largely to the body of real estate and 
to the working endowment, with the purpose of making tuition in 
all departments free, and, in his will, left $1,500,000 of his estate to 
its use, with $500,000 as a library endowment. Others joined him 
in contributing to its equipment, adding ground, buildings and costly 
apparatus and endowing scholarships. His plan embraced provisions 
for literary, scientific and technical courses, with the professions 
called into requisition in the surrounding region especially in view, 
as he contemplated the prospect of its further development : and 
with the vouno- men of the Lehis;h Vallev nearest his heart, as those 



6 Three of the teachers, prior to and during the few years following the incorporation of 
the Borough, have been mentioned in connection with the Bethlehem schools — A. A. Camp- 
bell, C. H. Cline and Jacob Nickum. Some others were John D. Maughan, Griffith Perkin, 
Georije Getter. J. A. Campbell and the Misses Margaret Halpin, Sallie Bitters, Mary Naylor, 
Elmira Whitman. Yet another was O. R. Wilt, the present Superintendent of tlie .South 
Bethlehem public schools, the first incumbent of this office, elected in 1S89. 




JOHN CHRISTIAN JACOBSON HENRY AUGUSTUS SOHULTZ 

CHARLES FREDERICK SEIDEL 
DAVID BIGLER SYLVESTER WOLLE 



1846 1876. 729 

he wished to benefit. Ground was broken, July i, 1866, to com- 
mence the erection of the original structure, which was given the 
name Packer Hall. Although not entirely finished, it was opened, 
March 4, 1869. Meanwhile, not waiting for satisfactory external 
appointments, a modest beginning was made with the work of the 
institution. The formal opening occurred on September i, 1866, 
with six professors, including the President, three additional instruc- 
tors and twenty-five students. The exercises took place in what 
was named and is yet called Christmas Hall, a building intended for 
a Moravian Church, and erected on a lot presented by Judge Packer 
for the purpose, but then purchased, together with the unfinished 
building, because it lay within the boundaries desired for the seat of 
the institution. Out of the work then organized, which was placed 
tmder the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but in such a 
manner that it could develop on broad lines in the spirit and intent 
of the founder, has grown the splendid body of departments and 
courses, with their imposing group of buildings, now so familiar as: 
the Lehigh University.' 

The year following the opening of the University broug'ht the 
inception of another educational institution on the south side, under 
the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, primarily at the 
instance of Tinsley Jeter who, in 1866, had becorhe the owner of 
Fontainebleau. Conceiving that it would be a choice location for a 
girls' school, he broached this idea to Bishop Stevens who was favor- 
ably impressed by it. His tender of the property on favor- 
able terms for this purpose was formally accepted at a meeting 
of interested persons on December 11. 1867, and the necessary steps 
were at once taken. The school which, at the suggestion of the 

7 The original Board of Trustees were — The Right Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D.D., 
LL.D., President; the Hon. Asa Packer; the Hon. J. W. Maynard; Robert H. Sayre ; 
William H. Sayre ; Robert A. Packer ; G. B. Linderman, M. D.; John Fritz ; Harry E. 
Packer ; Joseph Harrison, Jr., with Robert A. Packer as Secretary and E. P. Wilbur as 
Treasurer. 

The faculty, when the opening took place, were the following: Henry Coppee, LL.D., 
Professor of History and English Literature, President; the Rev. Eliphalet Nott Potter, 
M.A., Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy and of Christian Evidences; Charles 
Mayer Wetherill, Ph.D., M.D., Professor of Chemistry; Edwin Wright Morgan, LL.D., 
Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics ; Alfred Marshall Mayer, Ph.D.. Professor of 
Physics and Astronomy ; William Theodore Roepper, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology 
and Curator of the Museum. The Instructors were : George Thomas Graham, A.B., Latin, 
Greek and Mathematics ; M. Henri Albert Rinck, French and German ; Stephen Paschall 
Shaipless, S.B., Chemistry. 



730 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Bishop, was called "Bishopthorpe" — the name of a country-seat of 
the Archbishop of York which had attracted his fancy — was opened, 
September 5, 1868, with Aliss Edith L. Chase as first Principal.'* 

Proximity of location suggests reference, at this point, to that 
beneficent institution, St. Luke's Hospital, so beautifully situated 
where once Dr. Oppelt's famous Water-Cure flourished. After the 
decline of the latter establishment and its purchase, in 1872, by James 
T. Borhek, it was sold by him to Tinsley Jeter, who had before 
possessed Fontainebleau. It was purchased of him in 1875, along with 
an adjacent tract, through the aid of gifts by Asa Packer and others, 
and conveyed to the Trustees of St. Luke's Hospital. Mr. Jeter, the 
owner for a while of both of those picturesque hill-side properties, 
participated in founding both of the institutions there established ; 
having served with the rector of the Church of the Nativity, the Rev. 
Cortlandt Whitehead, now Bishop of the Western Pennsylvania 
Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as the original committee 
to procure a charter, in 1872, for the "cottage hospital" which Mr. 
Whitehead had been zealously advocating as a feature of parish work. 
The charter extended official direction to include representatives of 
other Episcopal churches in the Valley. At the instance of leading 
men who became connected with the enterprise as Trustees, the base 
was broadened by an amendment to the charter in 1873, so that the 
selection of Trustees was not limited denominationally. The partici- 
pation of all the people of the Bethlehems and the surrounding region 
in its up-building was desired, just as its benign ministrations were 
to extend to people of all churches and of no church. In October, 
1873, it was opened in a building that had been purchased and fitted 
up on Broad — then Carpenter — Street. South Bethlehem. On the 
17th of that month the first patient was admitted. On May 24, 1876, 
it took possession of its new quarters, the Water-Cure property. 
There, through the further generosity of Judge Packer and of other 
large-hearted friends of the Hospital, its successive admirable build- 
ings were erected and gradually furnished in the course of years. 
The efficient training-school for nurses was added, December i, 1884. 
The Ladies' Aid Society, organized, August 6. 1874. enlarged its 
valuable auxiliary activity, while the undiscriminating work of mercy 
employing a high order of medical and surgical skill and steadily 



8 The first Board of Trustees were — besides Bishop Stevens and the local Rector, Rev. E. 
N. Potter — Dr. Coppee, President of Lehigh University, H. Stanley Goodwin, Tames Jen- 
kins, Tinsley Jeter, Robert H. Sayre, William H. Sayre and John Smylie. 



1846- 18/6. 731 

growing — often extending beyond its resources in room and funds — 
has received loyal support from some churches, many industrial 
establishments, and very many benevolent persons of the Lehigh 
Valley. 

Yet another pubhc enterprise that has taken possession of a portion 
of the old Hoffert Farm, off to the west of the Hospital and Bishop- 
thorpe, is the Fountain Hill Cemetery. The company was incorpor- 
ated in June, 1872. The cemetery was dedicated, July 7, by a service 
at the site, in which Lutheran, Moravian, Reformed, and other min- 
isters participated, and the first interment was made, August 28, 
1872. 

At that time all of the denominations which, since 1850. had organ- 
ized congregations or commenced services in Bethlehem were also 
represented in the new town on the south side. Some mention of 
several of them has been made in reviewing the beginnings of the 
Bethlehem churches, because of the intimate connection that existed. 
Several others were the fruit of efforts made by pastors and members 
of north side churches. The origin of the South Bethlehem churches 
which existed within the period embraced in this review may yet 
be given briefly in chronological order. 

On May i, 1859, a Sunday-school was opened in the first district 
school house on the south side by Miss Amanda Jones, a member 
of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem. This was the beginning of 
organized religious work south of the river. The following month, 
the first public services were held in that building by the Rev. 
Lewis F. Kampmann, President of the Moravian College and Theo- 
logical Seminary, assisted by several of the students. July 3, i860, a 
memorial signed by sixty persons, who lived south of the river, asking 
for the erection of a place of worship inBethlehem South, was received 
and discussed by the Moravian Home Mission Society of Bethlehem. 
In September, 1861, the Sunday-school was transferred to the grain- 
depot at the corner of New and Second Streets, and services were 
held there with considerable regularity until the close of 1864, prin- 
cipally by the Rev. F. F. Hagen, a member of the Executive Board 
of the Moravian Church. In that grain-house a congregation was 
organized on Christmas Day, 1863. The population of the new town 
which, at the close of 1861, was 947 persons, of whom 387 were mem- 
bers of the Roman Catholic Church, had, as already noted, increased 
to about 1500 at the end of 1863. The corner-stone of the church — 
later "Christmas Hall." already referred to, which was sold unfinished 
to the Trustees of Lehigh University in April, 1866 — was laid, Nov- 



732 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

ember 22, 1863, and its lower story was consecrated November 
20, 1864. The corner-stone of the present church, at the corner 
of Ehn Street and Packer Avenue, was laid, October 6, 1867, and its 
consecration took place, March 29, 1868. The first stationed min- 
ister was the Rev. Henry J. Van Vleck, who began his work on April 
22, 1866. The congregation was German, but an English one in 
conjunction with it was organized, April 26, 1868, with twenty mem- 
bers under the Rev. J. Albert Rondthaler, as English pastor. Out 
of the latter undertaking proceeded the Presbyterian Church of 
South Bethlehem. Mr. Rondthaler and sundry English members — 
some of whom had previously been Presbyterians — transferred their 
connection to that denomination in 1869, and on April 29 of that 
year, organized, as such, under the name of "The Presbyterian 
Church of Bethlehem."' Later developments on the north side have 
been related. The Presbyterian Church-edifice on Fourth Street, 
South Bethlehem, was commenced in 1870, began to be used unfin- 
ished in April, 1871, and on May 5, 1872, the first service was held in 
the main body of the church. 

The first services by bishops and clergy of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in Bethlehem and the lay services on the south side, prior 
to 1862, have already been mentioned. A Sunday-school was opened, 
May II, 1862, in the former North Pennsylvania railroad-station and 
in November of that year, steps towards building a church were 
taken, while services were being regularly held on the north side, as 
previously stated. The corner-stone of the Church of the Nativity, at 
the corner of Third and Wyandotte Streets, was laid on August 6, 
1863, and significantly the first service in the church took place on 
Christmas Day in 1864. The completed edifice was consecrated by 
Bishop Stevens on April 19, 1865, a day made memorable by the 
funeral of the martyred- President Lincoln, some of the clergy present 
on that occasion participating afterwards in the memorial services 
in the Moravian church of Bethlehem. The Rev. Eliphalet Nott 
Potter, who had been connected with the founding of the parish, as 
missionary in charge, became the first rector of the Church of the 
Nativity. On the site of the first church, with a portion of it retained, 
the present handsome edifice was commenced in 1885. The first 
service was held in the basement at Christmas of that year, and in 
the main body of the church, on Easter Day, 1887. The finished 
building was consecrated on All Saints' Day. November 1. 1888. St. 
Mary's Chapel at Lechauweki Springs, where Mr. John Smylie, one 
of the early prominent residents of Fountain Hill, with others brought 



about the establishment of the governor works in 1872, and opened 
an attractive summer resort, was buih in 1874-1875. St. Josepli's 
Chapel, on Iron Hill, also connected with the parish, was built in 
1884. The massive and beautiful Packer Memorial Church of Lehigh 
University, the gift of Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, daughter of 
the founder, was consecrated, October 13, 1887. 

The erection of the Church of the Holy Infancy" for the Roman 
Catholic population of South Bethlehem which had, for a season, 
worshiped in the church on Union Street, Bethlehem, as already 
stated, was naturally called for by the large increase of membership 
on the south side. The church was commenced in the autumn of 
1863, the corner-stone being laid on October 4, by Archbishop Wood, 
of Philadelphia. The consecration of the church in 1864, was also 
performed by him. The first pastor was the Rev. Michael McEnroe, 
brother of his successor, the present pastor. The present fine large 
edifice, on which work was commenced in 1882, arose on the site of 
the first which was demolished in 1883. The corner-stone of the 
new church was laid September 17, 1882, the basement was occupied 
at Christmas, 1883, and the finished church was consecrated, May 23, 
1886. The parochial school work and other organized activities that 
have arisen in connection with that large parish in recent years^ 
stand prominent on the south side, where also the second German 
Catholic Church of the Bethlehems has been founded; besides one 
for the Slavic population, commenced in 1891, the name of which 
honors Cyrill and Methodius, the illustrious missionaries who, a 
thousand years ago, carried the gospel to the Slavonians of Bohemia 
and Moravia, among whom, in days of decline five hundred years 
ago, the martyr John Hus tried to restore that gospel, and a half a 
century later the Church whose representatives founded Bethlehem 
arose out of his labors. 

The beginning of Lutheran work in South Bethlehem was made by 
the Rev. A. T. Geissenhainer who, with several other clergy, on 
August 30, 1863, laid the corner-stone of a church on Vine Street in 
which the first service was held on March 13, 1864, and which was 
dedicated and received the name St. Peter's Church on the following 
26th of June — the first consecrated house of worship on the south 
side. Mr. Geissenhainer ministered there gratuitously until 1867, 

9 The interesting historic Christmas associations of Bethlehem are signalized in the names 
of some modern churches and chapels — "The Nativity of our Lord," '' The Holy Infancy," 
and " The Nativity," with " St. Mary's " and " St. Joseph's " chapels. 



734 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

when he transferred his residence elsewhere and Pastor Rath, of 
Bethlehem, cared for the congregation until the Rev. C. J. Cooper 
became pastor in 1870. The present church, on the same site, was 
commenced in 1873, the corner-stone being laid on June 22. The 
basement was occupied for worship, March 29, 1874, and the finished 
church was finally consecrated. May 4, 1879. St. Mark's Church on 
Fourth Street was built in 1895, by a colony from St. Peter's, formed 
in 1888 for English services, and incorporated, May 6, 1889. The 
chapel, immediately built, was first occupied for worship on January 
20, 1889. 

Regular preaching by the Rev. I. K. Loos, of Bethlehem, was 
begun on the south side, January 20, 1867, and this led to the founding 
of the Reformed Church of South Bethlehem, the first offtcers of 
which were installed, November 10, 1867. The Rev. N. Z. Snyder 
was pastor from September i, 1870, to September i, 1892. The 
church on Fourth Street, the corner-stone of which was laid Septem- 
ber II, 1870, was consecrated, October 22, 1871. It was demolished 
in x\pril, 1896. On May 4, of that year, work was commenced on 
the present church, the corner-stone was laid on June 7, and the 
edifice was consecrated. May 30, 1897. 

The work of the Methodist Episcopal Church in South Bethlehem 
began with prayer-meetings in 1887, followed by the first preaching 
in July, 1888, in Brinker's Hall, when the first class was formed and 
a Sunday-school was organized, both being in charge of Charles 
Laramy, of Bethlehem. He, with the Rev. J. B. Graff and the Rev. 
E. E. Burriss, pastors of Wesley M. E. Church, Bethlehem, built up 
the new work which in 1889, was put in the care of the Rev. A. 
M. Strayhorn as a separate congregation. A building-site was soon 
purchased on Packer Avenue and on June 28, 1891, the corner-stone 
of the church was laid. This commodious and attractive edifice was 
the gift of Mr. John .Fritz, of Bethlehem, in memory of a pious 
mother. It came naturally to be called The Fritz Memorial Church, 
although it is known officially as The Asbury Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The church was consecrated, March 26, 1893. The efTorts 
to establish an African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Beth- 
lehem lie within the closing years of the century. St. Luke's Church 
of the Evangelical Association at the corner of Pawnee and Seminole 
Streets, was the outcome of efforts commenced in 1885, by the Rev. 
O. L. Saylor, then pastor of St. John's Church, Bethlehem, and later 
of the new congregation on the south side, until the appointment of 
the Rev. W. H. Staufifer in 1880. Work at the church was com- 



1846 1876. 735 

menced in June, 1887, the corner-stone was laid, August 7, and tlie 
basement dedicated, December 11, of that year. The dedication of 
the completed church took place, November 3, 1889. Added to this 
ecclesiastical diversity even organized Hebrew work, with a syna- 
gogue has come into existence among the mixed population during 
the last two decades of the century. 

Closing this survey of beginnings on the south side, attention may 
turn back again some years to the old town on the north side. The 
river may be recrossed this time not on the old Main Street bridge, 
built after its predecessor had been swept away in 1841, but on the 
New Street bridge, which came into existence to meet manifest needs, 
when the forward strides along the river on the south side were being 
taken and the people were pouring rapidly into the place at the time 
of the Borough organization. The project began to be agitated in 
1863, and definite steps were taken early in 1864. The New Street 
Bridge Company was chartered, May 3, 1864. The Commissioners 
were Aaron W. Radley, John J. Levers, Richard W. Leibert, Herman 
A. Doster. The first Directors of the Company were Charles N. 
Beckel, President; Robert H. Sayre, EHsha P. Wilbur, John J. 
Levers, Robert A. Abbott and Herman A. Doster, Secretary and 
Treasurer. Three years elapsed before the new bridge was a reality. 
The piers were finished, the second week in April, 1867, the timbers 
were laid before the end of that month and, the last week in June, it 
was open for travel. The next great freshet in the Lehigh, October 
4, 1869, seriously damaged one span and the following year an iron 
span was built by Charles N. Beckel, at the old works on Sand Island. 
It was finished in November. It may be remarked that Mr. Beckel's 
reputation as a constructor of iron bridges was quite extensive at 
that time. The following year, 1871, in August, he commenced the 
erection of the Union Street bridge across the Monocacy. 

The inception of the Broad Street bridge project dates from soon 
after the completion of the New Street bridge. The company was 
incorporated. May i, 1869, and commenced operations at once, pur- 
chasing portions of the Dixon and Luckenbach properties on Main 
Street to open an approach, and settling upon designs and materials. 
Work at the foundations was commenced on June 10, and in October, 
of that year, the masonry was finished. After a long delay in conse- 
quence of various impeding circumstances, the work was started 
anew in August, 1870. The second week in May, 1871, teams began 
to cross and on the 17th of that month the finished bridge was for- 
mally opened to the public. 



736 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

If the New Street bridge, so severely tested in 1869, had been built 
seven years sooner than it was, it would probably have shared the 
fate of all the bridges which then crossed the Lehigh, in the most 
disastrous flood on record in the valley. It came on June 4 and 5, 
1862. The description of the havoc wrought in January, 1841, which 
has been transferred to these pages from the records of the time, 
tells, in the main, what the inundated district at Bethlehem suffered 
on this occasion. The water rose only a little higher at this point 
than in 1841, but the ruin was very much greater, not only because 
there was more property and a larger population to be imperiled, but 
because the chief flood was occasioned by the breaking of a succes- 
sion of great dams far up the river, and the unprecedented rise of 
the water came with appalling suddenness.^" 

This caused serious loss of life at some places, which was not the 
case in 1841, when the water rose more gradually and the people were 
better prepared. More than a hundred and fifty persons perished in 
the Valley in 1862, and the pecuniary loss was variously estimated at 
between two and three million dollars. It is recorded that seventeen 
bodies were buried at the Lehigh County Poor House. Seven lives 
were lost in Old South Bethlehem and, many days after the water 
had subsided, unknown bodies were found amid the debris being 
cleared away in the grounds of the Young Ladies' Seminary and 
elsewhere in the neighborhood. The need was great among the poor 
at many places. About $500 in cash and large quantities of provis- 
ions were collected at Bethlehem for local relief. Charitable people 
in Philadelphia contributed more than $4000, which was entrusted 
to a committee of seven in the Lehigh Valley for distribution. Two 
members of the committee, Mr. Jacob Rice and the Rev. Sylvester 
Wolle, were in charge at Bethlehem, as one of the distributing 
centers, where $400 of the fund were disbursed. The committee, 
when it rendered its account, reported that a hundred and eighty-six 
families in the Valley had been recipients. 



"o The records of the Bethlehem Bridge Company report the gauge at the old bridge as 20 
feet in 1841 and 20 feet 6 inches in 1862. Careful comparisons made after 1862 reveal that 
farther up towards the region of the dams, the excess of 1S62 above 1841 gradually in- 
creased, in the nature of things, while below Bethlehem it was less than at this point, be- 
cause in 1841 more water poured into the Lehigh from tributaries farther down and the 
Delaware was higher than in 1862. It was stated at the time that, in consequence of a great 
dam of wreck.Tge extending from the river bridge to Water Street, the back-water on the 
Monocacy flats rose from S to 10 inches higher than in 1S41. 



1846 1876. 737 

Besides the damage done to the old bridge, one span of which was 
carried away, and the great loss suffered by the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company and 
the Lehigh Zinc Company, the heaviest losers at Bethlehem were 
naturally those who owned industries in the old part of Bethlehem, 
along the Monocacy, in Old South Bethlehem and on the Sand Island. 
The old ifour-mill was then already the property ot David and Andrew 
Luckenbach, the present owners of the rebuilt mill who, the previous 
year, had purchased the property of their father, the late Jacob Luck- 
enbach, to whom, in 1847, ^t had been sold by Charles Augustus 
Luckenbach. The severe ordeal of water suffered by the new firm 
was followed, in 1869, by one of fire, when, in the night of January 
27, the historic old mill was burned to the ground. While the new- 
one was being gotten into operation the freshet of 1869 occurred, 
subjecting it to the first of a number of inundations. The tannery 
was owned, in 1862, by the late William Leibert who, in 1846, after 
it had lain idle for some time, purchased it in company with Adam 
Giering and, in 1848, became its sole owner. The loss and damage 
suffered were serious. David Taylor, the lessee of the saw-mill, 
Lewis Doster, Jr., Levi Ott, and the firm of Borhek, Knauss and 
Miksch, all of whom were engaged in business along the canal as 
lumber and coal-dealers, were among those most severely affected. 

As for the canal, it was in ruins over a great part of its course. 
Constrained to abandon the thought of rebuilding the fatal dams, the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company which owned the canal 
secured, that year, railway privileges above Mauch Chunk, as a sub- 
stitute for the previous water transportation on that section, while 
proceeding to repair the canal from there down. Out of all this grew, 
finally, the construction of the next railroad past Bethlehem. A bill 
authorizing the company to build a railroad also below Mauch 
Chimk, all the way to Easton, was passed in March, 1864. This was 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, now a division of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey. At first, it was very commonly referred to 
along its course as "The Lehigh Navigation Company's Railroad." 
Before the close of that year the construction of the new road was 
progressing vigorously at some points. The building of the section 
past Bethlehem — commenced in 1866 — changed the topography far 
more than the opening of the canal had done many years before. 
There are none who remember "Bartow's path" ruined by the canal, 
but manv remember the meandering walk above it of which traces 



y^iS A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

yet remain, and the various other attractive features along the brow 
and b'ase of Nisky Hill into which the railroad cut so ruthlessly. The 
slow and laborious work, performed there by the forces employed by 
Contractor Ira Cortright, was finished early in 1867. The rails were 
laid past Bethlehem in October of that year and, at the end of the 
month, the track was finished from Easton to Mauch Chunk. On 
November 25, the first train, consisting of sixty cars of coal, four 
loaded with lumber and four passenger cars, passed down the new 
road. On March 31, 1871, it was leased by the Central Railroad of 
New Jersey and in 1873, the present passenger station at Bethlehem 
was built. 

At the time when the Lehigh and Suscjuehanna Railroad was com- 
pleted, another, of more purely local associations — with Bethlehem 
as not merely a station but a terminus — was opened. This was the 
Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad — its eventual corporate title. On 
May I, 1862, an act was approved, incorporating a company "for the 
purpose of constructing a railroad from the North Pennsylvania and 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Junction at Bethlehem to the Borough of 
Bath in Northampton County." The incorporators were James Vleit, 
Samuel Straub, James Kennedy, Conrad Shimer, Charles Augustus 
Luckenbach, James Leibert, John Fritz, James Jenkins and Charles 
Brodhead. They had organized, in April, 1862, as "The Bethlehem 
Railroad Company," with Charles Brodhead, President ; Conrad 
Shimer, Treasurer ; James Vleit, Secretary ; Conrad Shimer, James 
Vleit, Samuel Straub, Samuel C. Shimer, James Jenkins, Charles 
Brodhead and John Fritz, Directors. Early in 1867, after operations 
were well on the way, "The Monocacy Iron and Steel Company," 
associated with the enterprise, was chartered, with Charles Brodhead, 
Augustus Wolle, and others, as incorporators, for the purpose of 
establishing a furnace up the Monocacy. In the spring of 1867, the 
completion of the section at the Bethlehem end was in progress. 
The site of a station in West Bethlehem was purchased in April, 
and in May the trestle across the Monocacy was built. The purpose 
at that time was stated to be the opening of the road as far as the 
Chapman slate quarries as soon as possible. The middle of Septem- 
ber, the first locomotive was run as far as Shimer's, to which point 
slate was carted from Chapman's and thence conveyed by rail to 
Bethlehem. October 10, the road was finished to "the Half Way 
House," which then received the name Brodhead's Station. On Nov- 
ember 28, 1867, the completion of the road to Chapman's was cele- 
brated by running an excursion train to that place from Bethlehem. 



1846 1876. 739 

May 5, 1868, mail stage connection was opened between Brodhead's 
and Nazaretli. 

The great increase of business which resulted from these many 
enterprises and pubhc improvements naturally led to the establish- 
ment of banks at Bethlehem. The First National Bank was char- 
tered in 1863, and commenced business with Charles Augustus Luck- 
enbach the first President, and Rudolph Ranch the first Cashier. 
The same year The Dimes Savings Institution was founded, with 
Dr. William Wilson, and after his death, Charles B. Daniel, as Presi- 
dent, and James T. Borhek as Cashier. In 1870, E. P. Wilbur & 
Co. opened banking business on the south side, with Mr. Wilbur as 
President and William L. Dunglison as Cashier. They re-organized 
in 1887 as The E. P. Wilbur Trust Company. The Lehigh Valley 
National Bank of Bethlehem was incorporated in 1872. The late 
Dr. G. B. Linderman was its first President and A. N. Cleaver its 
first Cashier. All of these institutions, excepting the Dimes Savings 
Bank, still exist, and, in 1889, a new one, the South Bethlehem 
National Bank, was added on the south side. 

At this point the Bethlehem post-office may once more be referred 
to. Just before the incorporation of the Borough, it was in charge 
of Jacob Ktimmer, May 3, 1841, to March 24, 1845. Then Charles 
C. Tombler became post-master the second time, to March i, 1848. 
when he was followed by William D. Tombler to May 7, 1849. His 
successors were James A. Rice and, from his death in October, 
1850, his widow, Mrs. Josephine Rice, to May 26, 1853; WilHam F. 
Miller to August 11, 1856; C. A. Luckenbach to October 15, i860; 
William H. Bush to April 2. 1861 ; Robert Peysert, the post-master 
during the Civil War, to April 10, 1877, beyond the j)eriod of this 
chapter — the longest and most eventful term." 

The foregoing subjects having all been disposed of, so far as the 
design of this chapter extends, and the most of them finally, it 

II He was followed by John Lerch to June 27, 1881 ; Owen A. Luckenbach to November 
16, 1885 ; George F. Herman to July 19, 1S89 ; Owen A. Luckenbach again to his death, 
October 16, 1890, and his widow, Mrs. Jane Luckenbach, to January 26, 1891 ; Henry A. 
Groman to the time when this history closes. The oldest residents may now remember eight 
places where the post-office has been quartered : prior to 1845 ^""^ again, 1849 to 1853, at 
the site of the present Bee Hive Building; 1S45 '° l849i the site of the Myers Building; 
1853 to 1856, the Sun Hotel; to 1861. near it south where the drug store is; to 1872, yet 
farther south at the site of the Globe Store; to 1877, in the present Peysert Building; then 
across the street adjoining J. S. Krause's hardware store, to 1885, when it was moved to its 
present place, corner of Main and Market Streets. 



740 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

remains to bring together the leading features and inciddnts of 
Bethlehem's connection with the great Civil War, out of which the 
Nation, that celebrated its centennial anniversary in the year with 
which the chapter closes, arose new-born, and all of its sections, all 
of its cities and towns, every particular community and institution 
entered a new era. Many of the most prominent things that have 
been treated of in this chapter occurred in the years of the war. 
To this, mere allusion has been made, for the plan has been to group 
subjects and treat the several classes of matter somewhat distinctly 
as the easier way to cover, in two chapters, the range and variety of 
thirty important years, so full of beginnings and changed situations. 

Long before the great conflict drew near, the people of Bethle- 
hem had ceased to stand aloof in principle from those claims of citi- 
zenship that called for militia service. Although the militia system 
of Pennsylvania was in a state of general decay, and to a great 
extent an object of ridicule by the people, yet even Bethlehem had 
several military companies, after a fashion, and that they were not 
quite without iron in their blood soon appeared when the test of 
sterner duty than holiday parades suddenly came. Captain Woehler's 
Bethlehem Guard was obsolete, but on May 28, 1859, 'he old German 
soldier made a speech at the anniversary of a new company, "The 
Washington Grays," then being drilled in the manual of arms by 
Captain James L. Selfridge. Another, "The Bethlehem Artillerists," 
also existed, with Dr. William Wilson in command, and for a while 
"The Bethlehem Cavalry" had cut a figure under George Wenner. 
The Armory, of which the volunteer company formed in 1848 cher- 
ished visions when it applied for two lots on Broad Street on which 
to erect such a building, was sometimes more than a name, even when 
the Mexican War was being forgotten and no other war was 
expected; and only an occasional exciting Presidential campaign in 
which men waxed warm over controversies that, at last, did bring a 
long and awful war, awakened new interest in drill and parade. 

When the shots fired at Fort Sumter on April 12 and 13, 1861, 
following those that had challenged the Star of the West in Charles- 
ton harbor, startled the country, and revealed that the worst fore- 
bodings were realized, there was, of course, sensation at Bethlehem 
as elsewhere. Captain Selfridge, with his lieutenants, Frueaufif and 
Goundie, and the Washington Grays, were at once ready to offer 
their services, and the same day on which President Lincoln issued 
his first call for seventy-five thousand volunteers for thirty days, they 
could telegraph to the Governor of Pennsylvania that they would be 



1846 1876. ■ 741 

prepared to march when wanted. Four days later, April ly, they 
started. An affecting service was held before they left, in which 
several clergymen participated and about two thousand people gath- 
ered at the railway station to bid them God-speed. They were mus- 
tered in on April 23, as Company A of the First Regiment of Penn- 
sylvania Volunteers. The four companies recruited at once in and 
about Easton largely composed the remainder of the regiment, 
under Col. Samuel Yohe of Easton. From camp at Fort Scott, at 
York, they sent their complete muster-roll the following week. It 
was published in the next issue of the Bethlehem newspaper. On 
April 22, at a large gathering of men in Citizens' Hall, the recruit- 
ing of a proposed Company B of the Washington Grays was com- 
menced, while the Artillery Company, beginning with the existing 
nucleus, was nearly up to the requisite number and was drilling 
assiduously. The same day, a meeting of men above the age for 
military service at that time — forty-five years — was held at the Sun 
Hotel to organize a Home Guard. A committee was appointed to 
draft a constitution and another to ascertain whether government 
arms could be procured. Forty-five men were present and all but 
two signified their readiness to join at once. These tyvo were under 
the age-limit and declared their willingness to go into the field if 
needed. Jedediah Weiss was chairman and Reuben Ranch secre- 
tary. Ira Cortright, Henry B. Luckenbach and Christian F. Luch 
were the committee on arms. Charles F. Beckel, Matthew Krause, 
Nathan Bartlett, Thomas W. Jones and the Rev. Ambrose Rond- 
thaler were the committee on constitution. 

With all this, there were, of course, those at Bethlehem, as else- 
where, who doubted the right of the Federal Government to proceed 
against the secession movement with armed force, even if they did 
not sympathize with the movement, just as political opinion had 
always been divided on the question of national sovereignty and 
state rights. There were those who failed to see the inevitable out- 
come of temporizing with slavery, that national incubus which pro- 
duced it all. The situation having become acute, intensifying feel- 
ing and putting those whose loyal blood was stirred, out of patience 
with those who halted between two opinions, some citizens of Beth- 
lehem, as well as of other places, came under sharp censure. There 
were even some who denounced the Government and spoke in terms 
of disparagement of the men who were ready to rally at their 
country's call ; and soon the significant term "copperhead" came 
into vogue at Bethlehem also — deserved undoubtedly in some cases, 



742 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

but probably not in others. Furthermore, in the midst of all anxiety 
and deeply serious patriotism, the situation was not too grave to be 
subjected to flippant jest^- or to be turned to business account in 
the form of sensational advertising,^^ even in staid old Bethlehem. 
It is of interest to scan the war-time newspaper-files and observe 
how everywhere even solid and decorous business men fell into the 
habit of turning their advertisements into the prevailing language 
of "war-talk," and taking on the style of the startling headlines. 
■ The prevailing spirit of Bethlehem, however, which, with a parting 
h3fmn and prayer, sent the first company of the first Pennsylvania 
regiment to answer the call, was sustained. The boys also caught 
the patriotic and martial fervor, and organized the "Union Guards" 
— afterwards the "Union Cadets" — and "The Indestructible Lancers" 
— boys from twelve to fifteen years old. The former, twenty strong, 
went into camp in July, 1861, in a field of Herman Fetter, on the 
Monocacy Flats and, in his honor, named their rendezvous "Camp 
Fetter." 

Bethlehem also became a source of military supplies. Doster's 
"Moravian Woolen Mills" turned out a high grade of government 

■= Before the actual beginning of hostilities, at the March election in 1861, a burlesque 
borough ticket was circulated " by parties unknown to the jury " — so one account — headed 
"Palmetto Rattlesnake Ticket," on which the fictitious candidates — reputable citizens asso- 
ciated with worthless characters and " half-witted fellows," — stood pledged " irrevocably for 
the Union, Tonnage Tax, Market House and Fort Charles Augustus." 

13 One specimen is this : "The Difficulties Settled ! Hostile Parties Reconciled ! No 
War!! Chairs! Chairs! Chairs!— C. W. Rauch's old stand. No. 38 South Main Street- 
Michael Stuber." 

Another, when the first draft came : " Bethlehem Quota Filled ! Readers, you are all safe 
from the present Draft ! Now is the time to provide yourself and family with Fall and 
Winter Goods." 

One announces "Another Raid on the Mammoth Store ! Excitements being the order of 
the day we would inform the Public that the excitement in Dry Goods, Hardware, Groceries, 
Carpets, Wall Paper, Zephyrs, etc., etc., is as great as ever." 

Another proclaims " The latest Intelligence ! The Undersigned invites the Attention of 
the Public to his elegant new place of business, No. 66 S. Main St." 

After the "slump" of mflated prices, when the value of gold reacted from its skyward 
maximum, following decisive battles, one firm gave out the bulletin : " Great Fall in Dry 
Goods and Groceries ! The Crash has come ! Speculators alarmed ! Good Times Coming ! 
Owing to our recent brilliant Victories and the consequent general feeling and anticipation 
of an early closing of the War, and the heavy fall in Gold, a great panic has been caused 
in the market in all kinds of Merchandise." 

One, with more entequrise than delicacy, hastens, after a gi'eat battle which filled the 
land with weeping, to shout into stricken homes— " Mourning Goods of every Description! 
Prices to suit the Times !" 



1846 1876. 743 

goods. In August, 1861, a large contract for "'heavy blue kersey" 
to be made up into army overcoats set the mills going, full force, 
day and night; a contract which the local newspaper stated it would 
take ninety days to till. The establishment, containing a large 
quantity of such goods, was destroyed by fire, March 22, 1862. 
Partially rebuilt, it was again ruined by water in the great freshet 
of June, 1862. Later, operations were transferred back to the old 
mill on the Sand Island for a few years and then closed. 

The first grief and mourning of the war came to the community 
when, on July 25, 1861, Lieutenant Goundie arrived with the body 
of William Harrison Haus, of the Washington Grays, who, the pre- 
vious evening, had died of fever on board the cars between Baltimore 
and York, en route for Harrisburg with the company returning from 
the thirty days' service. The whole company reached home on the 
27th, were met at the station by an immense concourse and were 
escorted to Citizens' Hall, where an address of welcome followed 
by prayer was made by the Rev. H. A. Shultz and a luncheon was 
served by Bethlehem ladies. The next day the remains of their 
comrade Haus were laid to rest in the Old Moravian Cemetery. 
Several thousand people attended the funeral of this first Bethlehem 
man who died in military service. The next one was Urias Bodder, 
who died in August and was interred in the Union Cemetery. 

The next body of troops raised in the Lehigh Valley that gathered 
at Bethlehem and started from this point, was the famous cavalry 
company recruited by William Emil Doster who, at the very outset, 
had turned from his studies in the law-office and come to Bethlehem 
to raise a troop of cavalry, but because there was no call at first 
for mounted volunteers, was prevented from executing his purpose 
until mid-summer. Edward Tombler assisted him in the effort. 
On August ID, 1861, they went into camp on Sand Island and named 
it Camp Doster. They were joined by about forty men brought 
down the valley by Mr. Tombler. August 15, they elected Mr. 
Doster, Captain ; Herman Horn, of Weissport, First Lieutenant, and 
Mr. Tombler, Second Lieutenant ; and after parading the streets 
started that day — a hundred and sixteen men — for Philadelphia. 
They were mustered in as Company A, of Col. Josiah Harlan's Light 
Cavalry, but later became Company A, of the Fourth Pennsylvania 
Cavalry. They were in twenty-seven engagements. After the pro- 
motion of Captain Doster, who later became Colonel and eventually 
a Brevet Brigadier General, Lieutenant Tombler succeeded him in 
command of the company. During that same month of August, 1861, 



744 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Samuel Wetherill recruited another troop of cavalry with head- 
quarters at Bethlehem and, on August 28, left for camp with about 
thirty men. Captain Wetherill subsequently rose to the rank of 
Major and the company was at first attached, as Company H, to Col. 
Harlan's Light Horse, which was later registered as the Eleventh 
Cavalry and the One Hundred and Eighth Regiment of Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, while that of Captain Tombler had, before that, 
been embodied in the Fourth Cavalry and Sixty Fourth Regiment. 
At the same time Captain James L. Selfridge, who had become 
Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, with Col. — 
afterwards General Joseph Knip§, was busy recruiting at Bethle- 
hem and in the vicinity for that regiment, and one after another of 
the Washington Grays re-enlisted for the three years' service. Owen 
A. Luckenbach, who had enlisted with a Philadelphia company for 
the thirty daj^s' term, now became Captain of that original com- 
pany, as newly recruited and afterwards incorporated as Company 
C, in the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, which later saw very 
hard service, did signally valiant duty and, like many others, was 
finally much depleted.^* 

On October 21, 1861, nearly two hundred ladies met in the Old 
Moravian Chapel and organized a Relief Association, to co-operate 
for the care and comfort of wounded soldiers, and on Thanksgiving 
Day a collection was taken to provide them with funds. This kind 
of work became extensive in Bethlehem as the need grew and 
appealed to w^omen throughout the country ; and increasing exper- 
ience in camp and field and hospital, in selecting things that were 
most required, enabled people at home to apply their efforts more 
systematically and effectively. It enlisted the activity even of the 
scholars in the Parochial School and the public schools, and many 
a woman of Bethlehem doubtless remembers how she, when a school- 
girl, helped to scrape and pick lint, to make bandages and to prepare 
bags and cases of useful little things for the soldiers, and how their 
mothers taxed their time, strength and supply of high-priced sugar 
and other concomitants, with fruit from the orchard and garden, to 
prepare delicacies in great quantities for convalescents in the hos- 

'4 Some of the men who formed the original company of Washington Grays, later re-en- 
tered the service several times under later calls. To follow the transfers, shiftings and 
mergings, in the course of the war, in the case of different sets of men or even of single 
officers cannot be attempted here. This difficulty and lack of space prevents the insertion 
of muster-rolls which would be of no value for reference unless complete and accurate. 



1846 1876. 745 

pitals. The interest of the Parochial School children was greatly 
increased by a visit, on January 3, 1862, by Major Robert Anderson, 
the gallant defender of old Fort Sumter. They sang for him and 
he made a fervent address to them. 

August 8, 1862, was another notable day, when, in response to 
renewed calls for troops in July — which took forty-three new regi- 
ments, embracing over forty thousand men, followed under spur of 
a draft by fifteen more of about fifteen thousand men, from Penn- 
sylvania — Captain Jonathan K. Taylor and his Lieutenants, Andrew 
A. Luckenbach, afterwards Captain, and Orville A. Grider, and Ser- 
geant Franklin C. Stout, who later became a Lieutenant and ulti- 
mately Captain, left Bethlehem with their fine company of men. They 
mustered in the morning in front of Ambrose H. Ranch's Confec- 
tionery — frequently the point of such gatherings — surrounded by a 
vast throng of people. There a solemn service was held by the 
Moravian clergy and Pastor Welden of the Lutheran Church, whose 
son was among the volunteers, and who, as President of the Beth- 
lehem Bible Society, gave each man a copy of the Holy Scriptures. 
The Chaplain-elect of the company, William Henry Rice, who had 
left his studies to enter the service of the country ; who on August 
17, was ordained at Bethlehem by the venerable Bishop Samuel 
Reinke and then served as Chaplain until May, 1863, responded, in 
behalf of the company, to the warm farewell words that had been 
spoken and the whole assembly, soldiers and civilians, stood with 
tmcovered heads in the street and joined at the close in the Lord's 
Prayer. Then a procession was formed and the large throng, mar- 
shalled by David O. Luckenbach, escorted the company to the rail- 
way station, where the volunteers took the train for Camp Curtin at 
Harrisburg — the greatest rendezvous of recruits, military storage- 
point and hospital-center in the country. They were mustered in as 
Compan}^ C of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania 
Regiment, organized, August 15. Four companies of this regiment 
were raised in Northampton County. No regiment's movements and 
experiences became a more familiar story to the people of Beth- 
lehem than those of this strong body of men. The very next day 
after their departure, the sharp battle of Cedar Mountain was 
fought, in which the 46th suffered and Captain O. A. Luckenbach 
received the wound which compelled his retirement and left him 
a cripple. His place was filled by the promotion of Lieutenant 
William Stolzenbach. August 21, 1862, a union meeting of the 
religious denominations of Bethlehem was held in the Moravian 



746 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

church to organize a "Chaplain's Aid Society," the object of which 
was explained by Chaplain Rice, who was present. September 8, 1862, 
a mass-meeting was held in Citizens' Hall to adopt measures for 
raising bounty money, and that evening the order of Governor Curtin 
for all able-bodied men to be ready to turn out within twenty-four 
hours as State Guards, to repel a threatened invasion by General 
Lee"s army, was received. One company of the Fifth Regiment of 
militia called out at this time — Company D — was composed entirely 
of Bethlehem men, under Captain Joseph Peters, with Lieutenants 
Franklin J. Haus and Abraham S. Schropp — David O. Luckenbach 
being First Sergeant. On September 13, the marching orders came 
and at eleven o'clock, sixty men started, including even professors 
and students of the Theological Seminary, who had been aroused 
from their scholastic pursuits by the great excitement. After the battle 
of Antietam, four days later, they were not needed and returned. 
September 22 — the day of President Lincoln's immortal war meas- 
ure, destined to mark an epoch in the history of the world, the 
proclamation emancipating all slaves in the United States, to go 
into effect January i, 1863 — the sixth notable departure of troops 
from Bethlehem took place. This was a part of the regiment raised 
for the nine months' service, entirely in Northampton County, by 
Col. Charles Glanz — volunteers and hired substitutes — at the time 
when the draft was pending. They first took the name of "The First 
Pennsylvania Regiment in Lieu of Draft," but were afterwards 
enrolled as the One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment of Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers. Captain Joseph Frey's company started that day 
from Bethlehem. From Nazareth came a company under Captain 
Owen Rice. They were joined by another, largely recruited in the 
Saucon Valley, under Captain Henry Oerter. Again there was a 
meeting in front of Ambrose Rauch's and a farewell service took 
place, participated in by sundry clergy, with addresses by the Rev. 
F. F. Hagen and Dr. Frederick Fickardt.''' Dr. Abram Stout, of 

15 Dr. Fickardt, who figured often on such and a variety of other kinds of occasions as a 
favorite speaker, had been a resident and practitioner at Bethlehem since 1843, when he re- 
moved to the place from Easton and occupied part of the house of Dr. Abraham Stout, the 
elder, who had been established at Bethlehem since 1821. Dr. Stout was the next in the 
succession of regular Bethlehem physicians, after Dr. Freitag. He died in 1S57. Coteni- 
porary with Dr. Fickardt was Dr. Wm. Wilson who. in 1844, came to Bethlehem from Bath 
and first opened his ofiice in a part of Dr. Fickardt's house which had previously been 
occupied, for a while, by .Stout and Dixon as a drug-store. Dr. John J. Wilson, deceased, and 
Dr. J. H. Wilson were the second and third of the name in Bethlehem, -•\nother prom- 




FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MARTIN ABRAHAM LEWIS HUEBENER 

JOHN EBERHARD FREYTAG 

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS FICKARDT AUGUSTINE NATHANIEL LEINBACH 



1846 1876. • 747 

Bethlehem entered the service as surgeon of this regiment. On 
September 25, the "emergenc_y men," who went out as State Guards 
returned and were given a demonstrative reception with an eloc|uent 
speech by Dr. Fickardt. 

On November 21, the need of better faciUties for private convey- 
ance between Bethlehem friends and troops from the town, occa- 
sioned a meeting at the Sun Hotel to institute an "Army Express" 
for regular trips to camp. On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 
a mass-meeting was held in Citizens' Hall in the interest of measures 
for the assistance of families from which the bread-winners had 
been taken. A cotemporary record states that $2,200 had been 
raised in Bethlehem during the year for that purpose and $2,000 of 
that sum had been disbursed. Great battles like that of Antietam, 
September 17-18, 1862, in which the late Captain Robert Abbott 
was severely wounded, had left many a wife in the Lehigh Valley a 
widow. December 13, of that year, occurred another of the notable 
engagements in which many Bethlehem men participated, that of 
Fredericksburg, where some were wounded and others were taken 
prisoners. Captain Jonathan Taylor was so severely wounded that 
he died in the hospital at Georgetown on March 28, 1863. -His body 
was brought to Bethlehem on the 30th. A great mass of people 
accompanied the hearse from the railroad station, in silent sorrow, 
to the home of his parents on Market Street, the Moravian church 
bell tolHng while the procession moved. On April i, the funeral 
and the interment in the old cemetery took place. 

At that period the National Union League of Bethlehem was 
formed. Copies of its constitution and rules printed by Herman 
Ruede still exist. Ira Cortright was President ; William W. 
Selfridge, John P. Cox, Robert H. Sayre, C. A. Luckenbach 
and John C. Weber were Vice-Presidents ; David Rau was Treas- 
urer; C. Edward Kummer was Recording Secretary, and Dr. Robert 
J. McClatchey was Corresponding Secretary. It was the most 
critical time of the war, with the most unsatisfactory situa- 
tion, the most serious dissension and the most damaging 

inent physician during those years was Dr. Benjamin Wilhelm, who came to Bethlehem in 
1845 and died in 1870, father of Dr. E. T. Wilhelm, of South Bethlehem. Vet another, for 
a number of years was Dr. F. A. Martin, well-remembered by older residents of Bethlehem. 
Dr. P. Breinig, Dr. A. N. Leinbach and Dr. E. H. Jacobson who began practice somewhat 
later, survived among the older physicians until recent years. Dr. Abram Stout, who with 
Dr. J. H. Wilson, remain of those who are known by the present generation as the older 
doctors, is a nephew of Dr. Stout the elder. 



748 ■ A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

activity, with tongue and pen, on the part of those in the north who 
favored ending the war on almost any terms. A day of fasting and 
prayer was observed, in accordance with the proclamation of the 
President, on April 30, 1863. A few days later, came new anxiety 
with the tidings of the bloody battle of Chancellorsville, in which, 
again, many Bethlehem men were engaged. On May 20, an enor- 
mous crowd gathered to greet the returning Company C of the 
129th Regiment, in command of Captain A. A. Luckenbach, 
at the close of their nine months' service. There were addresses 
and a prayer of thanksgiving for their safe return; the fact that no 
Bethlehem men were killed or even wounded in the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville being particularly remarked. Then, in June, came the 
call of the President for a hundred thousand more volunteers and 
the proclamation of Governor Curtin ordering out the full militia 
force of Pennsylvania, in view of the threatening nature of General 
Lee's rnovements. Captain F. C. Stout and former Chaplain W. H. 
Rice were particularly energetic in recruiting a new company of 
"emergency men." Some complications ensued because of the 
objection of the Government at this time to accepting enlistments 
for less than six months, but this was modified to admit enrollment 
for ninety-day service. Suddenly, while this recruiting was in pro- 
gress, the climax of excitement and anxiety for eastern Pennsyl- 
vania came. 

On Sunday morning, June 28, when the anniversary festival of 
the Moravian Congregation was being observed and Bishop Peter 
Wolle was preaching in the church, the announcement reached Beth- 
lehem that Lee's army had invaded Pennsylvania. Excited men 
hurried unceremoniously into the church, one going up to the pulpit 
with the message, while another commenced to ring the bell. The 
service was immediately concluded and the people dispersed in a 
state of much agitation. Directly, a mass-meeting was held in front 
of the Eagle Hotel ; speeches were made by Dr. Fickardt, the Rev. 
F. F. Hagen, the Rev. W. H. Rice, Jedediah Weiss and Dr. Wilson ; 
and in a short time forty men had enlisted. The next day was one 
of intense excitement. All business was suspended and, for the first 
time since the days of the Revolutionary War, Bethlehem was one 
of the objective points for panic-stricken, fleeing people — not, as 
then, and in the earlier Indian wars, hungry, ragged, unkempt, for 
this time they could afiford to come well-dressed and fed, but 
refugees, nevertheless — for the great Confederate army that had 
crossed the Potomac, was now in Pennsvlvania. At four o'clock in 



1846 1876. 749 

the afternoon about a hundred men, a number of whom had seen 
service before, left Bethlehem under Captain Stout — business men, 
mechanics and laborers, professors and students — to enter the emer- 
gency service in the 34th Militia Regiment under Colonel Charles 
Albright, of which Robert E. Taylor was Major and Abraham S. 
Schropp, Adjutant. Then came the awful battle of Gettysburg, July 
2 and 3, the repulse of the Confederate forces after frightful 
slaughter on both sides, and the turning-point in the fortunes of the 
war; being directly followed by the fall of Vicksburg before General 
Grant's persistent siege. On July 6, many Bethlehem men went to 
Reading, where the most recent volunteers were in camp, and some 
went on to the ghastly battlefield. 

Hardly had the feeling of relief, in the midst of sorrow over the 
slain and anxiety about the wounded, set in, when new consterna- 
tion was occasioned at Bethlehem, as elsewhere, by the "draft riots" 
in New York City, under the common impression that it was planned 
to take place simultaneously with Lee's invasion. But this excite- 
ment, in turn, subsided and, after the battle of Gettysburg — although 
some of the most tremendous scenes of the war were later enacted — 
there was, on to its close, far less of turmoil at Bethlehem than 
previousl)'. The "emergency men" returned in August. 

During 1864, when the coming and going between home and camp 
was an every-day occurrence and people had become accustomed to 
much that had earlier created sensation, one of the local incidents 
was the organization, in March, of an auxiliary branch of the United 
States Christian Commission. A first large gathering took place 
on the 8th, in the Moravian Church, when the matter was presented 
and the initial steps were taken. The finai mass-meeting was held 
at the same place on the 26th, when a constitution was adopted and 
a large committee was appointed in charge, with a central executive 
committee, composed of the Rev. Sylvester Wolle, Chairman ; Jonas 
Snyder, Secretary, and Mahlon Taylor, Treasurer. 

Just at that time occurred one of the most pathetic funerals at 
Bethlehem during the war, that, on March 16, 1864, of Frederick 
and Augustus Fickardt, sons of Doctor Fickardt, aged respectively 
twenty and eighteen years, who died in the army after brief service ; 
the first on March 4, and the second on March 9. The first had 
joined Company G, recruited mainly in and about Bethlehem by 
Lieutenant Moulton Goundie for the Second Pennsylvania Heavy 
Artillery. They were interred in the old cemetery, as were also 
Lieutenant Lawson Merrill, of the United States Navy, who died 



750 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

at the Sun Hotel on August 9; John Bloom Vail, who served in the 
navy, and Charles Edmund Doster, a Bethlehem volunteer, who died 
at home that year. Another interesting aspect of the situation, in 
the matter of demands which the war put upon people, is presented 
by the recorded statement that, up to February 25, 1864, the sum 
of $10,200 had been raised in Bethlehem to pay bounties and to- hire 
substitutes, when the quota of 'thirty-four men had been made up to 
fill the draft of that month. Yet another draft came a year later, 
and it was then stated that the entire amount thus raised at Beth- 
Jehjgm was $81,365.00, and in Northampton County $1,193,674.00. 

At last, on April 3, 1865, came a day of rejoicing, when the news 
of the fall of Richmond was confirmed, for this was taken as indi- 
cating the end of the war. The announcement of General Lee"s 
surrender to General Grant was made at the close of the service in 
the Moravian church, on Monday evening of the Passion Week, 
April 10, and a special hymn was sung. Then, at half-past nine 
o'clock on the morning of Great Sabbath, April 15, came the 
appalling message that President Lincoln had been assassinated the 
previous night, and on the funeral day, the Wednesday after Easter, 
April 19 — in compliance with the proclamation of President John- 
son calling for the observance of the time from noon until two 
o'clock as a time of special mourning — the memorial services already 
referred to^were held. In accordance with arrangements made by 
a committee, there was a gathering at the Market Street front of 
the cemetery, where an address was made by Dr. Fickardt. Then 
followed a procession to New Street, to Broad Street, to Main 
Street and down Main Street to the Moravian church, where the 
service was conducted by Bishop H. A. Shultz. Addresses were 
made by the Rev. E. deSchweinitz and the Rev. D. F. Brendle, while 
the Rev. E. N. Potter and other clergymen took part, otherwise, in 
the service. 

The waf was ended, but a strange mingling of great joy and great 
sorrow marked its close. On June 10, 1865, Governor Curtin issued 
his proclamation making formal announcement of the end and recom- 
mending a special observance of Independence Day suitable to the 
occasion. At a meeting of the citizens of Bethlehem on June 22, 
held at the Eagle Hotel, the arrangement of a programme was put 
in charge of a committee, with C. A. Luckenbach as Chairman and 
O. B. Desh as Secretary. The leading features of the celebration 
were a general illumination on the evening of July 3, beginning at 
half-past eight o'clock, firing of a salute and ringing of bells at four 



1846 187C. 751 

o'clock on the morning of the 4th, the reading of the Declaration of 
Independence by Major Samuel Wetherill and an oration by Dr. 
Fickardt on the lawn below the Eagle Hotel — the exercises begin- 
ning at ten o'clock — and fireworks at the river in the evening. On 
the evening of July 22, the remnant of Company C, of the Forty- 
sixth Regiment, after serving throughout the war, arrived home 
under Captain Stolzenbach. A stirring reception was tendered them 
at the railroad station. They were escorted up Main Street to the 
point in front of Ambrose Ranch's, vi^here the several memorable 
farewell gatherings had taken place. There they were welcomed by 
Dr. Fickardt in an eloquent address, to which General James L. 
Selfridge responded. A banquet at the Eagle Hotel followed. Then 
came again other closing scenes, solemn and sad. On August 10, 
occurred the funeral of the young student, John C. Hagen, who had 
died in the service of the country. The funeral service and the 
interment in the old Moravian Cemetery were attended by General 
Selfridge, Major Wetherill, Captain Stolzenbach, Captain Alexander 
Selfridge, and nearly all of the returned soldiers, all in full uniform. 
Another such occasion came on October 27, when the remains of 
Clarence Kampmann, who died, June 4, on board the United States 
vessel, the Red Roz'cr, in service as Admiral's clerk, and had been 
temporarily buried at Mound City, Illinois, were laid to rest in the 
old cemetery. 

Eight men who had served in the war had been given graves there 
before the close of its last year. Others were interred there 
later and, up to the time when the soldiers' plot in Nisky Hill Ceme- 
tery began to fill up, more graves in the old cemetery than in any 
other were marked by the little flag and the floral tribute each year 
on "Memorial Day" — or as it was first more commonly called, 
"Decoration Day" — May 30. It was observed at Bethlehem the 
first time in 1868. A procession was formed on Main Street in the 
following order: the brass band, the clergy, the committee of 
arrangements, former soldiers, representatives of civic organiza- 
tions, school children, citizens. The first halt was made in the old 
burial-ground, where a brief service was held. The Rev. Edmund 
deSchweinitz, after a few suitable remarks, read the names of all 
the soldiers buried there with a succinct statement of the military 
career of each one, and the flowers were placed upon the graves. 
Then the procession moved on to the other cemeteries, at each of 
which a similar order was observed. Meanwhile, that National 
organization of war veterans. The Grand Army of the Republic, 



752 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

having come into existence, the Bethlehem Post was formally estab- 
lished, May 25, 1869. It was registered as No. 182, and, in honor of 
the one commissioned officer of Bethlehem who died of wounds 
received in battle, was named The J. K. Taylor Post. After that, 
they took charge of the Decoration Day ceremonies which, in the 
following years, were not commenced, but concluded, in the old 
Moravian Cemetery, where, excepting several times at the G. A. R. 
plot in Nisky Hill Cemetery, the principal exercises, with an oration, 
took place — after 1887 around the monument at the Market Street 
front of the cemetery, erected in memory of deceased soldiers -and 
sailors of the Civil War and unveiled, October 11, 1887 — until, in 
1895, the concluding exercises of the day began to be regularly held 
in the Moravian church. The South Bethlehem organization, Robert 
Oldham Post, No. 527, dates from August 2, 1886. 

The transition is easy, from the beginning of those observances in 
sacred memory of the great struggle that left the Nation re-estab- 
lished and re-united, to the triumphant celebration of the centennial 
anniversary of Independence Day, with which the chapter may close. 
Nothing that has not already been alluded to in the course of things at 
Bethlehem, during the intervening years, needs to be particularly 
mentioned. The effects of the great financial crash, precipitated on 
the memorable "black Friday," September 19, 1873, which spread 
over the country, were felt with peculiar severity at Bethlehem, in 
the collapse of business concerns, the wreck of fortunes, the sweep- 
ing away of many a one's little savings and the stand-still of great 
industries, leaving hundreds without employment and bringing a 
protracted season of "hard times." These things are recent and well- 
remembered history. Their weight was yet keenly felt when the 
year 1876 dawned, but they did not seem to suppress the enthusiasm 
with which that notable year in the history of the United States was 
greeted. 

The opening of the centennial year was distinguished by special 
features that marked the customary vigils of New Year in the Mora- 
vian church. When the great congregation poured out of the 
church after the first hour of January i, 1876, had been entered, a 
"centennial parade" took place, in spite of inclement weather and 
muddy streets, led by a chief mafshal, the Bethlehem Cornet 
Band discoursing patriotic and martial music. The bells of the town 
were rung while the parade was forming. Many residences and 
business places were illuminated along the line of march. There 
was an abundance of red light, with continual discharge of fire-arms 




EDMUND ALEXANDER DE SCHWEINITZ 



1846 1876. 753 

and much cheering, until nearl_\- three o'clock. Before four o'clock 
the streets were deserted and quiet reigned. Alany will remember 
how the early part of that famous year was marked by an almost 
unprecedented manifestation of religious interest which spread 
through the countr}- from the great meetings commenced by Moody 
and Sankey in the centennial city of Philadelphia. It touched Beth- 
lehem also and brought an epoch in the religiotis annals of the town. 
j\iay 10, the opening day of the great Centennial Exposition, was a 
general holiday, and the spirit in which the people of the old town 
hung out the country's flag from windows and doorways contrasted 
strongly with the misgivings and fears with which on that day, a 
century before, the village fathers deliberated on the signs of the 
times, spoke of the consternation occasioned by the reported 
approach of hostile ships at Philadelphia and "doubted whereunto 
this would grow." The next day of note was June 27, when the 
famous centennial reunion took place at the Seminary for Young 
Ladies, in which at least two hundred and fifty former pupils par- 
ticipated; the oldest alumnae who registered being ladies who were 
in the school between the years 1800 and 1810. Inspiring exercises 
took place in the Moravian church, attended by more than six hun- 
dred invited guests from near and distant places. On Sunday, July 2, 
memorial services were held in all of the churches. Those in the 
Moravian church were notably elaborate. The centennial sermon 
was preached by Bishop Edmund deSchweinitz. The chief feature 
of the handsome decorations was a floral bell in imitation of the his- 
toric "liberty bell." Its ground was rhododendron blossoms bor- 
dered with arbor vitae, having the figures of the inscription set in 
red geranium. At midnight, from the 3d to the 4th of July, services 
were held, not only in the Moravian church, but also in other 
churches of the town. At nine o'clock on the morning of the great 
anniversary, another vast concourse attended a service in the Mora- 
vian church, arranged by the Young Men's Christian Association. 
It was conducted by Bishop deSchweinitz. The Declaration of 
Independence was read by the Rev. J. T. Swindells, of the Metho- 
dist Church, a historical sketch of Bethlehem, compiled by the Rev. 
William C. Reichel, was read by U. J. Wenner, and an oration was 
delivered by the Rev. J. M. Leavitt, D.D., President of Lehigh Uni- 
versity. The prayer was offered by the Rev. A. D. Moore, of the 
Presbyterian Church. There was elaborate music, directed by Prof. 
Theodore F. Wolle. Miss Kate Selfridge sang "The Star Spangled 

49 



754 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Banner" as a special feature of the occasion. There were very 
elaborate exterior decorations in many places, one of the most 
notable being that at the union passenger station in South Beth- 
lehem. Among the parades that took place a conspicuous one was 
that of the "Centennial Cadets," organized and drilled by Col. W. 
L. Bear, Superintendent of the Moravian Parochial School. In the 
evening, the finest exhibition of fireworks ever witnessed at Beth- 
lehem was given by Mr. E. P. Wilbur and .Mr. Harry E. Packer. 
The local newspapers recorded the fact that no arrests for drunken- 
ness or disorderly conduct had become necessary and that the "lock- 
up" of the Borough was empty on the morning after the celebration. 
Bethlehem was a very difiterent town from what it was when the 
Declaration of Independence was read the first time, a hundred years 
before ; different even from what it was before the great Civil War ; 
for when it settled down, after that momentous period, to pursue the 
even tenor of its way, it did not slide back into the grooves of ante- 
bellum days. Much in the details of its town life had passed away 
in the turmoil of those years. Much that was new had come in. It 
had entered what may be called its most modern period, that in 
which its present younger citizens have grown up from infancy. But 
with all the change, some essentials of character and tone had been 
carried with it, in which the spirit of the fathers yet lived in the 
general standard of sobriety and order. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



A Century and a Half Completed. 
1877 — 1892. 

The final period of a decade and a half that remains to be reviewed 
being so recent, this long story of Bethlehem may be brought 
rapidly to a close; especially in view of the fact that, in the preced- 
ing two chapters, many of the subjects treated of have been followed 
into this last period, so that they need not be further adverted to. 
The years which succeeded the centennial anniversary of the United 
States were not eventful years at Bethlehem, or years that marked 
important beginnings like many of those before. They constituted 
rather a period of slow recuperation after the great financial and 
industrial prostration that had existed from 1873. When aggressive 
activity, engaged with new undertakings, again appeared, many of 
the men who had before been in the lead were no longer so. Some 
succumbed in the financial ordeal and lost their grasp. Others had 
been removed by death, and yet others who had survived, with 
property and influence, represented rather a mere conservative con- 
trol of remaining interests and lines of business, with little specula- 
tive disposition or inclination to pioneer work in new things. Those 
who were associated with the undertakings that originated after 
this time were rather, for the most part, the younger citizens of the 
place who had not before been leading, or new men from elsewhere 
who had come into connection with local affairs. 

The great industries on the south side had gradually resumed 
normal activity and all classes were beginning to experience better 
times when an unprecedented ordeal of dread disease visited the 
community, especially South Bethlehem. This was the memorable 
small-pox scourge of 1882. Already before the close of the previous 
year, cases occurred here and there. In January it increased to an 
extent that caused uneasiness. Suddenly it became epidemic on 
the south side in March, spreading at an appalling rate, while many 
cases appeared in West Bethlehem and some in the old town. Many 



7S6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

weeks of tribulation passed before it disappeared. A liundred and 
twenty deaths occurred in the Borough of South Bethlehem, thir- 
teen in the adjacent part of Lower Saucon Township, four in Salis- 
bury Township, eighteen in West Bethlehem and twelve in Bethle- 
hem — a total of a hundred and sixty-seven. Among them was the 
faithful sexton of Nisky Hill Cemetery, Charles Groman, who, after 
helping to inter many of the unfortunates, was stricken down by 
the contagion. The pathetic sight of many helpless orphans, after 
the scourge subsided, moved the late W. W. Thurston, then Vice- 
President of the Bethlehem Iron Company, to found the Children's 
Home, which yet exists among the local charities, incorporated in 
1886 and occupying its present quarters since 1888. It was opened 
on June I, 1882, and for some time was entirely supported by Air. 
Thurston, in a building on Cherokee Street, South Bethlehem, which 
he purchased and fitted up. Several organizations that were formed, 
on both sides of the river, for relief, continued to exist for some 
years and to engage in charitable work in emergencies. The lesson 
of stricter regulations and better precautionary measures, on the 
part of the local authorities, in the matter of guarding the health of 
the community, was also learned. It began to be realized that the 
towns had grown to a size which, in many particulars, required 
methods different from those of the village, and that there had been 
a large increase in that class of the population which, in its own 
interests as well as for the good of the whole, has to be dealt with 
by law in nearly all things. 

A conspicuous feature of the general development, not long after 
that time, was the organization of West Bethlehem as a distinct 
municipality. On March 15, 1886, a meeting of citizens discussed 
the question of securing incorporation as a Borough, and appointed 
a committee to ascertain the opinions of the tax-payers of the dis- 
trict. At another meeting, on May 4, this committee reported a 
hundred and fifty-three in favor of the proposition and forty-two 
opposed to it, and it was resolved to proceed at once. The 
charter of incorporation included the district formerly called 
South Bethlehem in the Borough, and went into effect, Sep- 
tember 16, 1886. The first Borough election was held on Novem- 
ber 2. The first Burgess was Marcus C. Fetter. The first Council- 
men were William H. Foltz, George W. Grube, Charles Hess, Asher 
Hower, William Mann and William Walp. In 1887, a fire depart- 
ment was instituted. The organization, which it was proposed first 
to call "Fetter Hose, No. i," eventuallv received the name 



i877 1892. 757 

"Monocacy Hose Compan\-." The municipal building, commenced 
in the autumn of 1887, on "The Old Allentown Road" — later named 
Prospect Avenue, because more euphonious — was completed and 
formally occupied in April, 1888. In that year the new Borough 
was also divided into two wards. Various improvements were] 
introduced. Among these was a better organization of the public 
schools under a Principal, in 1887. The first who held this office 
was C. T. Bender. In 1884, the Fairview School-house had been 
built on a lot purchased of William Leibert, at the corner of Market 
Street and Fourth Avenue. The school-house on Spring Street 
which, fifteen years before, had taken the place of the original one, 
called "The Vineyard Street School-house" — although it did not 
stand on Vineyard Street — had long been inadequate. So rapidly 
did the population increase, that very soon yet more ample school 
accommodations became necessary and, in 1891, the handsome large 
Higbee School-house on Spring Street stood ready for use. 

The mention of the old Vineyard Street School-house calls up its 
association with religious work on the west side, referred to in a 
previous chapter. The West Bethlehem Moravian Sunday-school 
was transferred from that to the two-story school-house on Spring- 
Street, and at intervals stated preaching took place there also. In 
1877, the late Levin J. Krause offered to present a lot on the Allen- 
town Road, at the corner of the third intersecting new street — now 
Third Avenue — for a Sunday-school chapel, if one should be erected 
within five years. It was not until after the expiration of that time 
that the enterprise was undertaken. The corner-stone of the chapel 
was laid on August 26, 1883. Through a special gift by the late 
George W. Dixon, a better building was erected than had been 
planned. It was dedicated on January 27, 1884, and on the 27th of 
May, 1885, the old bell that had long lain unused in the cellar of 
the Moravian Church was hung in the belfry of the new chapel. 
The building was enlarged and improved, the latter part of 1890, and 
was formally re-opened on Januar}' 25, 1891. 

The Lutheran membership living in West Bethlehem organized 
a separate congregation, July 29, 1887. in charge of the Rev. W. D. 
C. Keiter. The building-site on Third Avenue was secured in Sep- 
tember and the erection of a church was at once proceeded with. 
It was finished and consecrated, April 8. 1888, receiving the 
name Holy Trinity Church. In like manner some of the members 
of the Reformed Church living on the west side opened a Sunday- 
school, on May 20. 1888, and out of this grew the organization of 



758 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

a congregation, December ii, 1891, the first pastor of which was 
the Rev. J. F. DeLong. The cliapel on Fourth Avenue was com- 
menced in 1890, and occupied by the Sunday-school in February, 
1891. It was consecrated, June 28, 1891, and called Bethany Chapel. 
These two places of worship, together with the Moravian chapel, 
then met the religious requirements of by far the larger part of the 
population that had denominational preferences. 

The period at which these West Bethlehem developments took 
place was one of renewed activity and progress generally. On the 
south side, the new era of the Bethlehem Iron Company, as a manu- 
facturer of government ordnance, had opened. It was on March 
22, 1887, that the Company, relying on the progress it had made in 
its equipment for such work and the ability of its Superintendent 
and Engineer to provide what was further needed, submitted its 
first proposals to supply gun-forgings and armor-plate, in response 
to the circular issued by the Secretary of the Navy in August, 1886, 
inviting such bids. This was one of the most notable industrial 
epochs at Bethlehem. Other prominent new enterprises had made 
their appearance on both sides of the river as a result, to a consid- 
erable extent, of the efforts made by the Boards of Trade that had 
been organized by business men. Foremost among these was the 
silk manufacturing industry, on a scale that would have amazed good 
Philip Bader nursing his brood of silk-worms in the Brethren's 
House at Bethlehem and at Christiansbrunn, a century and a quarter 
before, or Ettwein who, nearly a hundred years before, had, under 
the stimulus of premiums offered by scientific and industrial organi- 
zations, produced silk in profitable quantities at Bethlehem; or even 
James Whittemore, of fifty years before, when "the Monts Multicaidis 
craze" was making men's heads whirl with visions of silk and wealth. 
He had his cocoonery, in 1837, in the little frame house on Church 
Street, known to many as the Neisser house, and his orchard of 
mulberry trees, to furnish food for the worms, on one of the lots near 
the canal and within call of where one of the great silk mills has 
arisen. Subscriptions for the Bethlehem Silk Mill on Goepp Street 
were opened in 1885. Ground was broken for the foundations of the 
building on February 24, 1886, and, already on November 3, the 
machinery was started in the finished structure. The first section 
of the extensive Lipps and Sutton mill on Seneca Street, South 
Bethlehem, was built in the Spring of 1886, and started in July. In 
May, 1886, negotiations were concluded for the establishment of the 
third, now called the Sauquoit Mill, between the canal and the river, 



i877 1892. 759 

above the railroad bridge. Tlie building was commenced in July. 
In February, 1887, the mill was under roof and, the following Sep- 
tember, it was completed and put into operation. 

The era of electricity had also dawned at Bethlehem. The enter- 
prising promoters of the Bethlehem Electric Light Company first 
had the Armaux Light on exhibition in June, 1883. They were 
legally incorporated in September, and at the close of the year their 
first private service was introduced in the town. Certain street 
lights were paid for by individual subscription for about a year. In 
February, 1885, a large majority of voters declared in favor of having 
the streets lighted by electricity at the public expense, and in April 
the first contract was made with the Company by the Borough 
authorities. "The Saucon Electric Light Company of South Beth- 
lehem" was incorporated in April, 1886. 

That decade was a period also of other municipal enterprises and 
public improvements, in response to demands that had become imper- 
ious ; of plans and projects numerous, sweeping and occasionally 
clashing. The clamor of years, from some quarters, brought Beth- 
lehem's "curb-stone market" to an end and gave the town a market 
house which was formally opened, November 10, and first occupied 
by venders, November 13, 1884. The south side, however, surpassed 
the old town in the imposing dimensions and appearance of its 
market. The chronic complaints about the streets also began, at 
last, to bear fruit in satisfactory street improvements in the three 
Boroughs. In Bethlehem, the agitation began to be serious in 1884. 
The proposition to macadamize the streets was opposed by many 
tax-payers, before whose eyes the vision of results was shut out 
by the nearer, bulky figure of first cost that stood before them, but 
it finally became clear that a move must be made. An extensive plan 
found endorsement in a count of votes and the necessary steps to 
secure the required resources could be legally taken. The steam 
stone-crusher, purchased by Town Council in the summer of 1887. 
was given its first experimental test on December 8, of that year. 
The records tell of a visit to Reading by a committee of Councilmen 
in October, 1887, to inspect street work being done by a steam 
roller. The result was the purchase of one for the Borough. It 
arrived from England in Jul}', 1888. and was put to work tearing up 
a street surface experimentally and trying the nerves of the horses, 
on August 16. However varying opinions may stand on the subject 
of the cost, the details of management and other features in which 
people always claim the privilege of differing, as they look at things 



760 A HISTORif OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

from their respective points of view, the outcome in the present 
streets of Bethlehem probably le'aves none who would take their 
money back and have them as they were before. Then came the 
intricate process of street car and bridge projects, the incorporation 
of sundry companies to do various things — or to prevent others 
from doing things — the maneuvers, compromisings, mergings and 
successive actions at law which eventually resulted in the street car 
and bridge service as they stood as the close of the century. 

The first charter for a street railway in the towns was taken out in 
1887. The same year, a company was incorporated for the purpose of 
constructing a bridge across the canal and river east of Nisky Hill 
Cemetery. It was called "The Nisky Hill Bridge Company." In 
1887, the Broad Street bridge was made free. The last toll was taken 
on May 14. Complications delayed the effort to secure a free bridge 
across the river. Some thought a more satisfactory solution of the 
problem of closer relations between the north and south sides, of 
street car service and other desiderata lay in a new bridge to be 
constructed from a proposed extension of Main Street, Bethlehem, 
from its intersection with Church Street, southward to the Monocacy, 
straight across the river. This large plan, starting with measures 
by the Bethlehem Town Council to open the street extension referred 
to, took precedence, for a season, of efforts to free one or the other 
existing bridge. After its abandonment, these efforts resulted in the 
entire freeing of the' old Main Street bridge on which toll was yet 
taken for vehicles. It was traveled free by teams, the first time, on 
November 8, 1892. In April, 1891, the electric railway on the streets 
of Bethlehem was legally authorized. Work at its construction in 
the town was commenced in June. On August i, 1891, the first 
electric car entered Bethlehem across the Broad Street bridge from 
Allentown and was run up Broad Street to New Street. On October 
8, the first car passed over the Church Street and Main Street tracks. 
The grounds of the Bethlehem Fair and Driving Park Association 
where, in 1891, work was commenced in April and the first exhibition 
took place in September, were a terminus of the first local line. From 
that beginning the existing situation has developed. 

Several other municipal improvements may be referred to. In 
1884, a new fire company was formed in the north part of the 
Borough and named the Fairview Hose Company, No. 4. Its hose 
house on Fairview Street was built in 1885. The Central Fire Sta- 
tion, on Broad Street, was built in 1892, and the various new arrange- 
ments and equipments to make the department more efficient were 




JEFFERSON SCHOOL HOUSE 
FRANKLIN SCHOOL HOUSE 



1877 1892. 761 

then introduced. In 1889, the third of the successive pumps for 
Bethlehem's water supply that "have followed the old machinery of 
Christiansen, a Dean pump of far greater capacity than the preced- 
ing ones, was placed in the works and was tested on October 24, of 
that year. At the same time a considerably larger iron storage tank 
was built near that erected in 1872 above North Street, east of High, 
to which, in 1885, an additional height had been given. The Bethlehem 
South Gas and Water Company, which has to serve a much larger 
population,^ including West Bethlehem, since its incorporation, has 
constructed, since 1885, the two large reservoirs above St. Luke's 
Hospital to the west, completed in 1886, and a yet larger one com- 
pleted in 1893. The pumping station on the south bank of the river, 
across from the western end of Calypso Island — on which, in 1898 
and 1899, experimental excavations were made to ascertain the prac- 
ticability of drawing water filtered through the gravel from the 
river-bed — was built in 1886, and contains two pumps with a com- 
bined capacity of seven million gallons daily, feeding a reservoir 
capacity of fifteen million gallons. Yet another noteworthy step 
forward has been taken in the greatly improved postal facihties since 
the occupation of its present quarters, at the north-east corner of 
Main and Market Streets, by the Bethlehem post-ofifice, in 1885, and 
the erection of the new post-ofifice building on the south side in 1891. 
The free postal delivery was introduced on the north side in Septem- 
ber, 1887, and on the south side in November, 1890. 

Meanwhile, an extension and improvement of Bethlehem's public 
school accommodations — those of South Bethlehem were treated of 
finally in the preceding chapter — has taken place since their last men- 
tion, corresponding to other forward movements. In 1883, the office 
of Superintendent of Schools was instituted, the Principal of that 
time, George H. Desh, being the first to fill the position. After his 
death in 1888, he was succeeded by Thomas Farquhar. An intelli- 
gent and energetic Board of Directors gave careful attention to all 
matters that had to do with the internal and external advancement 
of the schools, and surprising elaborations in both respects took 
place in a few vears. The Franklin School-house supplemented by 



I In 1876 Bethlehem had a population of 5000, South Bethlehem less and West Bethle- 
hem only a few hundred. The census of 1890 gave Bethlehem 6750, South Bethlehem 
10386, and West Bethlehem 2757, a total of 19893 in the three Boroughs. With the adja- 
cent outskirts there was in 1892 a population of probably 21000 in " the Bethlehems" and 
their suburbs. The new Boroughs of West Fountain Hill and Northampton Heights did 
not yet exist at that time. 



762 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the old one on Wall Street no longer sufficed, and inside of four 
years three fine, large school-houses "were added. The Penn build- 
ing, at the north-east corner" of Main and Fairview Streets, was 
finished and opened in the summer of 1888. The Jefferson building, 
at the corner of Maple and North Streets, was finished and ready for 
use in 1890. Then it was concluded that the old Wall Street build- 
ing was no longer either sightly, sanitary or safe. It was demolished 
and, on its site, arose, in 1892, the handsome structure which, with 
sesqui-centennial associations in mind, was named the George 
Neisser School-house, in honor of Bethlehem's first school-master 
of 1742. A notable occurrence in connection with Moravian school 
work in Bethlehem, during the years now under review, was the 
elaborate celebration, by the Seminary for Young Ladies, in 1885, 
of the centennial anniversary of its re-establishment as a general 
boarding-school for girls. 

A prominent educational institution had been added to those of the 
town. "The Preparatory School for Lehigh University," founded on 
the south side on September 16, 1878, by Prof. William Ulrich, was 
transferred across the river, in May, 1883, into the "Captain Dutch 
house" on New Street — once had in mind for the Moravian Theo- 
logical Seminary — which he had purchased. After Prof. Ulrich's 
death he was succeeded in the charge of this school by his principal 
instructor, H. A. Foering, who has quite recently transferred it to 
a new building on the west side. On September i. 1885, a class 
preparatory to Lehigh University was formed in the Moravian 
Parochial School. Provisions were later introduced in the Bethlehem 
High School course for boys to prepare for the entrance examin- 
ations at Lehigh. Large-minded men connected with the manage- 
ment of these several schools, and with the faculty of the University, 
have been disposed to foster such natural and proper relations. 

No marks of progress, so far as externals are concerned, on the 
part of Bethlehem's educational institutions are more conspicuous 
than those which appear in connection with the Moravian College 
and Theological Seminary during the last years with which this 
chapter deals. The old Nisky Hill Seminary on Church Street, 
which had served the institution since 1858, had become inadequate 
and discreditable, and in 1890, steps were taken to secure the erec- 
tion of new quarters equal to its needs and an honor to the Church 
and the town. The fine block of lots on North Main Street was 
presented to the authorities by the Trustees of the Moravian Con- 
gregation of Bethlehem. An energetic and capable committee took 



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i877 1892. 763. 

charge of the enterprise, with the Rev. Robert deSchweinitz, so long 
connected with executive and financial management, serving as 
Treasurer. Building operations were commenced in the summer of 
1 891. On Sunday afternoon, August 2, the corner-stone of the large 
building, which afterwards received the name Comenius Hall, was 
laid. Meanwhile the other building, to contain the refectory and 
infirmary, was erected and the near-by dwelling-house, which was 
purchased, was remodeled as a home for the resident professor, the 
Rev. J. Taylor Hamilton. Then came the generous proposition of 
the late Ashton C. Borhek and his wife to build a chapel, as a gift 
to the institution, in memory of a deceased daughter. On Septem- 
ber 18, 1892, the corner-stone of the Helen Stadiger Borhek Memo- 
rial Chapel was laid. On the 27th of the same month, Comenius 
Hall, built to a large extent by the voluntary contributions of Mora- 
vians of Bethlehem and other places, was dedicated with solemn 
ceremonies. The beautiful chapel was consecrated on October 22, 
1893. In this connection mention may be made of the newest chapel 
of the Moravian Congregation, with which many of the students of 
The Theological Seminary have been associated, the Laurel Street 
Chapel. Its corner-stone was laid on October 9, 1887, and in Decem- 
ber of that year it was completed. Its consecration took place on the 
nth of December. The late Bishop Edmund deSchweinitz, President 
of the Executive Board, who from 1864 to 1880 had been pastor at 
Bethlehem, officiated on that occasion, and on the evening of the 
following Sunday, December 18, died suddenly at his home on 
Church Street. His last literary work had been the preparation of 
a historical sketch of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among 
the Heathen, which was read at the celebration of the centennial 
anniversary of the organization of that society, which took place on 
November i of that year. This occasion, following the centennial 
at the Young Ladies' Seminary in 1885, was the third in a succession 
of notable anniversaries observed, in the course of a few years, by 
Moravians in Bethlehem. The first was the hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the beginning of Moravian missions to the heathen, 
which was observed on August 21, 1882. 

So conspicuously were the musical elements of these and subse- 
quent notable festivities brought out, that a, reference yet to some 
of the more recent musical efforts at Bethlehem may not be out of 
place here. The old Philharmonic Society was partiall}^ restored 
after a season of decline and, as late as 1884 and 1885, gave several 
concerts. Then its orchestra co-operated with the new organiza- 



764 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

tion- called the Bethlehem Choral Union, formed on September 28, 
1882, by J. Fred Wolle who, after the death of Prof. Theodore F. 
Wolle in 1885, became organist and choir-master of the Moravian 
Church, a position which he continues to hold while serving the 
Packer Memorial Church of Lehigh University in the same capacity; 
Prof. H. A. Jacobson, one of the most proficient organists of Beth- 
lehem, sharing his duties in the church during all the years since 
then. The Choral Union gave its first concert on March 27, 1883. 
It consisted of parts of Haydn's "Creation," and some lighter selec- 
tions. Among the many public efiforts that followed, some have a 
prominent place among the musical events of Bethlehem. One was 
the rendition of the "Messiah," on December 14, 1886, followed by 
the "Elijah," November 29, 1887, both in the Moravian church. 
Another was the first attempt to produce the music of John Sebas- 
tian Bach, in parts of the Passion according to St. John, on June 5, 
1888, in the chapel of the Moravian Parochial School. Mendels- 
sohn's "Christus" and Rheinberger's "Christophorus" were also 
given, to the pleasure of music-loving people. Its most ambitious 
undertaking was the St. Matthew Passion of Bach, on April 8, 1892, 
given so successfully that it was a revelation of possibilities at Beth- 
lehem in compositions considered beyond the abilities of any chorus 
that could be gotten together in a place of such size, even with the 
cultivation of a high order of music as a tradition of the town for 
more than a century. Then came a merging of the Choral Union 
in a new organization of November 15, 1892, called The Oratorio 
Societ}-, which, however, did not last long in the character then 
taken, and was eventually succeeded by the formation of The Bach 
Choir out of its elements as a nucleus. Further work in Bach was 
the production, in part, of The Christmas Oratorio. December 18, 
1894 ; and then, after long and assiduous labor, the most elaborate 
and difiicult composition of all, the Mass in B. Minor — again in the 
Moravian church — on March 27, 1900. This was its first complete 
production in America, and in the closing year of the century, 
grandly crowned the musical work of Bethlehem.^ 

2 The Bethlehem Liederkranz formed by C. W. Roepper in October, 1 870 — followed, after 
an existence of many years, by the Bethlehem Maennerchor — and the Concordia Glee Club 
which existed for a few years after 1882, were other modern musical organizations. The Beth- 
lehem Cornet Band of 1875 ^^^ ^ longer career than the majority of bands and the Fairview 
Band which developed out of a serenading organization early in 18S4, was long a credit to 
Bethlehem. 

3 That superb achievement, the three days' Bach Festival of May 23-25, 1901, which 
attracted the attention of musicians throughout the country and even in Europe, and elicited 




WESTON DODSON ROBERT WILLIAM DESCHWEINITZ 

WILLIAM LEIBERT 
BERNHARD EUGENE LEHMAN OWEN AUGUSTUS LUCKENBACH 



1877 1892. 7^5 

Several notable anniversary occasions have been referred to. The 
sesqui-centennial year of Bethlehem abounded in occasions of histor- 
ical significance. Two conspicuous ones may — discarding chrono- 
logical order — be referred to before the chief one engages attention. 
Both of them vi^ere remarkable for the largest gatherings of children 
from the schools and students of the several institutions of learning 
that have ever occurred in Bethlehem. The first took place on 
March 28, 1892. It was the three hundredth anniversary of the birth 
of "that incomparable Moravian,'"* Bishop John Amos Comenius — 
ecclesiastic, patriot, philosopher and most eminent pioneer of modern 
pedagogics — an occasion observed by universities and colleges and 
by organizations that foster learning, throughout Europe and Am- 
erica. In the forenoon, at half past ten o'clock, representatives of all 
the schools of Bethlehem, to the number of about fifteen hundred, 
assembled in the Moravian Church, with the several principals, pro- 
fessors and teachers, boards of directors and the clergy of the town. 
Addresses were delivered by several clergymen and by a representa- 
tive of the Public Schools. The Choral Union furnished the musical 
part of the program. In the afternoon, special exercises were held by 
the Moravian Parochial School and by the Moravian College and 
Theological Seminary. The latter consisted of a contest in oratory 
for a prize ofifered by an alumnus, the Hon. James M. Beck, at present 
Assistant Attorney General of the. United States. The prize was 
called The John Beck Prize, in honor of his grandfather, the founder 
of the once celebrated Academy for Boys at Lititz, Pa. Such an 
oratorical contest then became a regular feature of the annual obser- 
vance of Comenius Day. Memorial services in the Moravian church 
in the evening concluded the celebration of the day in Bethlehem. 

The other notable observance referred to was the four hundredth 
anniversary^ of the discovery of America by Columbus, which gave 
occasion to the great Columbian Exposition at Chicago during the 
following year. The anniversary, very generally observed through- 
out the country on October 21, 1892, brought together another 
assembly of boys and girls which entirely filled the Moravian church. 
A committee composed of Thomas Farquhar, Superintendent of the 
Public Schools ; William Ulrich, Principal of the Lehigh University 

almost unqualified praise from eminent musical critics who were present ; when, as the reward 
of Mr. Wolle's ability and perseverance, the Christmas Oratorio, the St. Matthew Passion 
and the Mass in B Minor were all rendered complete by his well-trained choir, belongs 
to the events of the new century into which this history does not enter. 
4 The characterization of him by Cotton Mather in the " Magnalia" 



766 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSVLVANIA. 

Preparatory School, and Albert G. Rau, Superintendent of the Mora- 
vian Parochial School, had arranged the program. The several schools 
met in the morning at their respective places, then massed at the 
■corner of Broad and New Streets and there, headed by a band of music 
and a color guard of the Grand Army Post, started in procession — ■ 
each person, old and young, carrying a flag — down Broad Street and 
Main Street to the Moravian church and then to the square between 
the church and the Parochial school buildings, where the proclam- 
ation of the President of the United States in reference to the 
observance of the day was read and the national colors were saluted. 
After that ceremony, all filed into the church, where the concluding 
exercises were held, consisting of hymns, a prayer and several 
suitable addresses. The sight of the great throng of children with 
flags, entirely filling the spacious church, was one not soon forgotten. 
Later in the day, a large gathering took place in the Fountain Hill 
Opera House, where an oration was delivered by the late Henry 
Coppee, LL. D., of Lehigh University. 

It now remains to record the crowning anniversary celebrations, 
of greatest local interest, which marked the completion of a century 
and a half since the beginning of things at Bethlehem. Plans for a 
suitable observance of the time gradually took shape during 1891. 
On July 24, the matter was first officially discussed by the Board of 
Elders of the Moravian Congregation. On August 6, at a joint 
meeting of the Elders and Trustees, a committee of five was 
appointed to frame a general plan. In accordance with the sug- 
gestions of this committee, the Elders and Trustees, at another joint 
meeting on August 21, took action which resulted in the formation of 
a more permanent and larger "Sesqui-Centennial Committee." This 
committee organized on August 29, and appointed a sub-committee 
to formulate and report detailed plans. These related to the proposed 
celebration and to the preparation of a "Memorial Volume." Then 
a special Editorial Committee was appointed. On September 17, a 
consultation took place between a deputation from the Sesqui- 
Centennial Committee and one from the Bethlehem Town Council. 
With this the working out of plans started for a proper co-operation 
of ecclesiastical and municipal authorities, and a proper adjustment 
of the religious and civic elements of the proposed celebration. After 
that, the various features were left in charge of sundry smaller com- 
mittees, each responsible for its share of preparation, when the time 
should come. 



1877 — 1892. ^(i^ 

Meanwhile, the actual commemoration of beginnings at Beth- 
lehem commenced at Christmas, 1891 ; for it was then a hundred and 
fifty years since the memorable Christmas Eve service took place 
in the original log cabin which suggested the name that was given 
the settlement. More or less reference was made to this at the 
Christmas festivities in various churches of the town. Naturally 
the most attention was paid to it in the Moravian church. The 
decoration of the church was more elaborate than usual and some- 
what unique in design. Inscriptions of various kinds, with particular 
historical significance, predominated ; many of them selected and 
arranged with a view to making the whole an appropriate object- 
study for the occasion, rather than to merely producing artistic effect, 
as ordinarily.^ The two services of Christmas Eve were those that 
are always held, but the hymns and anthems were specially selected 
for the occasion and printed in a shape to be preserved as mementos. 
On the evening of Christmas Day, there was a joint celebration by the 
three Sunday-schools of the Moravian Congregation, in the church. 
More than a thousand scholars and teachers participated. In order to 
leave room for a large miscellaneous assemblage besides the schools, 
over two hundred children of the primary classes were placed on 
elevated tiers of seats to the right and left of the pulpit, facing the 
congregation, while all the available space about the table below 
the pulpit was occupied. In this way nearly two thousand persons 
were gathered in the church. The same plan in seating the children 
was followed at the services in which the)^ participated when the 
Sesqui-Centennial Anniversary of the regular organization of the 
settlement was celebrated in June, 1892. 

The days from the beginning of that month were busily occupied 
in preparations of various kinds by committees and individuals. On 
June 6, a notice to the citizens of the town, signed by Paul Kemp- 
smith, Burgess, and Theodore O. Fradeneck, Secretary of Town 
Council, was issued. It formally announced the civic celebration 
planned for Saturday, June 25. It called upon the people to observe 
the day as a general holiday ; to decorate their homes and places 
of business : to engage, with the schools of the Borough, in the 
ceremony of marking historic buildings and spots with suitable 
memorials ; to join the organizations of the town in the parade that 

5 Those who wish to know particulars will find them described in minute detail in the 
diary of the congregation and in the next following number of The Moravian, preserved in 
the archives. 



768 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

was planned and in gathering to hear the oration; and to illuminate 
their houses from eight to ten o'clock, at the close of the day. The 
municipalities of West Bethlehem and South Bethlehem were officially 
invited by the Borough authorities to participate in the celebration. 
Suitable formal announcements and invitations of several classes, 
prepared by an appointed committee, were specially sent to digni- 
taries and executive officials of the Nation, the State, the County and 
other Boroughs of the County ; to neighboring institutions of learn- 
ing, to the clergy, within certain limits ; and to representatives of the 
press. The order of all the religious and secular functions that 
entered into the celebration, as planned to extend from Friday 
evening, June 24, to Sunday evening, June 26, was printed for distri- 
bution at the proper time by the persons in charge of the several 
sections. 

Various private enterprises to add interest to the occasion, or to 
turn it to pecuniary profit, were also undertaken, by photographers, 
by certain organizations and by persons in different fines of business. 
One of these was the preparation of a neat sesqui-centennial medal, 
cast in bronze and in cheaper metal, of which very many were sold 
as souvenirs of the occasion. 

The most conspicuous undertaking, apart from what entered into 
the official programs, was the issue, by The Bethlehem Daily Times, 
of a Sesqui-Centennial Industrial Edition, of thirty-six pages, pro- 
fusely illustrated with portraits and buildings, old and new, in the 
Boroughs. A variety of historical articles by a corps of contributors 
dealt with every special theme that would be looked for in such a 
publication, and filled its pages with interesting matter, much of it 
permanently valuable for reference ; most of the articles being 
remarkably accurate. 

The exterior decorations, mainly of bunting in the national colors 
and flags in abundance, displayed on nearly all places of business and 
on hundreds of residences — many of them in very artistic designs 
arranged by professional decorators — surpassed in profusion anything 
of the kind that had ever before been attempted in Bethlehem. The 
fronts of the historic old buildings on Church Street were almost 
completely covered with bright colors. The interior of the Mora- 
vian church was suitably adorned. The celebrated painting by 
Schuessele of "Zeisberger preaching to the Indians" formed the 
center-piece in the pulpit alcove. Against the wall, on one side of 
the pulpit, was a large representation of the first house of Bethlehem 
and, on the other side, a similar one of the old Community House 



1877 1892. 7^9 

{Gemeinhaus), in which the organization took place in June, 1742, as 
it originally appeared. Both were the work of Charles Wollmuth, 
of Bethlehem. Some other features were the same as at Christmas, 
189 1. Large quantities of rhododendron, arbor vitae and Florida 
moss were used in the decoration which, like that of the preceding 
Christmas, was arranged under the experienced and skillful direction 
of Charles H. Eggert. 

Prior to the approach of the festivities, all of the educational insti- 
tutions of the three Boroughs, excepting the Public Schools, had 
closed for the summer. In most cases, their final exercises included 
some reference to the notable year 1892, in the history of education, of 
America and of Bethlehem. Those of the Moravian Parochial School 
were brought into such close relation to the Sesqui-Centennial cele- 
bration that they may almost be regarded as the beginning of it. 
The customary closing entertainment took place on Thursday 
evening, June 23. The recitation of sundry poems, both serious and 
facetious, relating to Bethlehem, written by persons at different 
periods of the town, was introduced, under the head of "Memories," 
as a part of the program. At the close of the exercises, the school 
and large audience were addressed by Bishop Edward Rondthaler, 
of Salem, North Carolina, who, as the representative of that old 
Moravian settlement and of the Southern Province of the Moravian 
Church, had been invited to Bethlehem to participate in the festivities. 
The commencement exercises of the school took place on the 
morning of Friday, June 24, the opening day of the celebration. The 
essays by members of the graduating class — several of them were 
read — all treated of topics associated with the history and traditions 
of Bethlehem. 

At seven o'clock on Friday evening, the trombonists assembled 
in the belfry of the church and announced the beginning of the cele- 
bration by playing four selected chorales, and soon the throngs were 
pouring into the church which was crowded in a short time. A great 
troop of children occupied the raised tiers of seats which filled the 
corner spaces to the right and left of the pulpit. At half past seven 
o'clock the Festal Eve Service was opened by the Senior Pastor, 
Bishop J. M. Levering. He was assisted in the service by 
his colleagues in the pastorate, the Rev. Morris W. Leibert 
and the Rev. William H. Oerter. A number of clergymen of 
Bethlehem and other places who had previously assembled in the 
vestry, filed into the church in procession and occupied seats about 
50 



IJO A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

the table in the space in front of the pulpit, between the raised plat- 
forms. This order was observed at five services of the occasion. In 
connection with his opening address, the leader of the service com- 
municated three greetings received by cable from Europe in the 
course of the afternoon. The first was from the old Congregation of 
Herrnhut, Saxony. The second was from the Moravian Congre- 
gation in London, organized in the same year with that of Bethlehem. 
The third was from the Moravian Synod in Germany, then in session. 
Salutatory addresses with discourses on three appropriate themes by 
the pastors of three of the four oldest Moravian Churches in Penn- 
sylvania, next to Bethlehem, were combined with the Festal Eve 
Service." The first was by the Rev. Charles Nagel, Pastor of the 
First Moravian Church of Philadelphia, who spoke of "The Distinc- 
tive Position and Character of the Bethlehem Congregation." He 
was followed by the Rev. Paul de Schweinitz, Pastor at Nazareth, 
whose subject was "The Bethlehem Moravian Pastorate of an Hun- 
dred and Fifty Years." The closing address was given by the Rev. 
Charles L. Mbench, Pastor at Lititz, on "Bethlehem's Great Congre- 
gation of the Departed" — a topic which appealed sensibly to the 
people amid the associations of the hour, and suitably rounded out 
the thought of the occasion. The music of the large choir and 
'orchestra, for which careful preparation had been made, fully met the 
expectations of the people, and its character was sustained through- 
out in the subsequent services. One of the selections, rendered with 
impressive effect, was a composition by the choir-master, J. Fred 
Wolle, produced for the first time on that occasion. The text, in three 
stanzas, opened with the words : "He leads us on by paths we do 
not know." One of the hymns sung by the children was the English 
rendering — to the original rugged old Bohemian chorale — of one of 
Bishop John Augusta's hymns, beginning "How blest and lovely 
Thy earthly dwellings are." 

Saturday, June 25, was devoted to what was distinguished from 
the church services as the civic celebration, arranged by a committee 
of Town Council and a deputation of the Moravian Sesqui-Centennial 
Committee, as a joint committee, augmented by nine other repre- 
sentative citizens, with the Burgess of Bethlehem as chairman. 
Nearly all places of business were closed in the afternoon and many 

6 The original plan, to have addresses at the opening service by the three former pastors 
of the Bethlehem Congregation, yet living at the time, had to be abandoned because the par- 
ticipation of two of them could not be secured. These three were Bishop H. T. Bachman, 
1870-79; the Rev. E. T. Kluge, 1879-83; the Rev. C. B. Shultz, 1S80-84. 



i877 1892. 771 

the entire day. In view of the occasion, the Bethlehem Iron Com- 
pany transferred pay-day to Friday. The festivities were opened by 
the rendition of chorales from the belfry of the church by the trom- 
bonists at eight o'clock. What was 'perhaps the most interesting 
feature of the entire festival occupied the forenoon of this day. This 
was the unveihng of memorial tablets and stones by the school boys 
and girls of Bethlehem. There were thirteen bronze tablets, one 
marble tablet and seven granite markers, suitably inscribed, all pre- 
viously placed in position on buildings and at sites of historic interest. 
The scholars with their teachers first gathered in their respective 
school-houses and then assembled at the intersection of Broad and 
Center Streets. Eight boys and seven girls of the Moravian Parochial 
School had been appointed by the Superintendent, the Rev. C. B. 
Shultz; twenty boys and six girls of the Public Schools had been 
likewise appointed by Superintendent Thomas Farquhar to perform 
the unveiling and to repeat, in connection with each memorial, a few 
words of historical statement and suitable comment which had been 
prepared for the purpose and assigned according to a fixed order. 
A procession was formed at the rallying-point and marched down 
Broad Street in the following order: the Fairview Band; the Chief 
Marshal, Albert G. Rau, Superintendent-elect of the Parochial 
School, with five aides ; the boys and girls selected to take distinct 
part ; the pupils of the Parochial School with their teachers ; the 
pupils of the Public Schools with their teachers ; all other persons 
who might fall into line. The buildings and sites thus marked were 
the following, at eighteen stations, named in the order in which the 
route was taken — several of the more distant points being visited 
only by detachments of boys accompanied by the men in charge: i. 
The Sun Inn. 2. The last of the houses moved to Bethlehem from 
the Indian mission, Nain, standing at the south-west corner of 
Market and Cedar Streets. 3. The "Horsfield house," a little farther 
up Market Street, on the north side, in' a section of which the first 
store in Bethlehem and in the Lehigh Valley was opened. 4. The 
site of the second Seminary for Girls (1790) at the south side of 
the main building of the Parochial School. 5. The Community 
House, later Clergy House {Gcmcinhaus) at the corner of Church and 
Cedar Streets. 6. The first Seminary for Girls, the "bell house" on 
Church Street. 7. The Sisters' House ; three tablets on the three 
sections of the building erected at different times. 8. The Old Chapel. 
■9. The Widows' House. 10. The original pharmacy of Bethlehem, 
■on the premises of the present pharmacy of Simon Rau & Co. 11. 



772 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The site of the first house of Bethlehem on Rubel's Alley, in the rear 
of the Eagle Hotel. 12. The oldest building — "Colonial Hall" — of 
the present Seminary for Young Ladies. 13. The site of the sign- 
board which once pointed oUt "the main road to Ohio," on south 
Main Street, where the road leads down to the mill. 14. The burial 
place of continental troops who died in the hospital at Bethlehem 
during the Revolutionary War, on the east side of First Avenue, 
West Bethlehem, north of Prospect Avenue. 15. The point where 
the first "Kings Road" crossed the river. 16. The landing place of 
the old ferry. 17. The site of the Crown Inn at the south-east corner 
of the union passenger station in South Bethlehem. 18. The original 
water works of Bethlehem across the way from the present works 
on Water Street.'' 

The next part of the day's program was the parade in charge of 
Chief Marshal Captain H. L. Jewett and his aides, with upwards 
of two thousand men in line. The order of divisions was: i. Mili- 
tary and civic organizations ; 2. the Fire Department ; 3. the municipal 
authorities and guests in carriages. Several South and West Beth- 
lehem organizations participated. The route was from Broad and 
Centre Streets, where the procession formed, to Linden, to Market, 
to New, to Fairview, to Main, to Church Street, where the several 
divisions were dismissed. Then the large groups of people who had 
been thronging various points along the line of march, and many 
others directly from their homes, assembled at four o'clock on the 
green, between the Moravian church and the Parochial school-house 
where seats had been arranged for as many as possible, and at the 
north side of which a platform had been built. On that the Burgess 
and Town Council, the Senior Pastor of the Moravian Church, as 
a participant in the exercises, General W. E. Doster, the orator of 
the day, and invited guests representing neighboring towns, took 
their places, with the Fairview Band, that furnished music, occupying 

7 In connection with the final wording of the inscriptions and the preparation of the parts 
to be repeated by the boys and girls, the writer was assisted by the late Prof. Edwin G. 
Klose, who took a zealous interest in all the details of the festival and was the most efficient 
helper the Moravian pastors had in the great mass and variety of preparatory work that 
necessarily fell to their lot. The work of getting the tablets and stone markers made and 
put in place was taken charge of by Mr. James S. Dodson and Mr. Harry E. Brown as a 
sub-committee. They were all produced at home. The tablets were cast at the Lehman 
brass foundry in South Bethlehem. Of the above list Nos. 4, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are stones, 
I is a marble tablet, all the rest are bronze tablets. This, for information when, after the 
lapse of years, some may have disappeared. 



i877 1892. 773 

a section. The exercises were conducted b)- Chief Burgess Kemp- 
smith who spoke the words of salutation and welcome which were 
followed by an invocation. After further music, the oration was 
delivered by General Doster who, in succinct and comprehensive 
manner, brought out the salient points in the scheme of the founders 
and builders of Bethlehem ; the genesis and results of the successive 
changes through which the town had passed; the serious and the 
comical aspects of its experiences ; and the elements in which its 
primitive ideals might even yet be cherished and applied to latter- 
day situations. While not dealing with many details, the oration 
was replete with historical information worth the attention of citizens 
of Bethlehem. Brief addresses of greeting by Ex-Mayor Charles F. 
Chidsey, of Easton, and the Rev. Dr. A. R. Horn, of Allentown, 
followed the oration. Before dispersing, the assembly joined in 
singing the hymn "My Country 'tis of thee," and was dismissed 
with the benediction. At the same time, another company had been 
drawn to another part of Bethlehem where an unofificial program of 
exercises was carried out, arranged by William McCormick, editor 
of the Times, who had organized and drilled a company of boys, 
known as the Y. M. C. A. Cadets. 

An interesting feature of the day's observance was a Loan Exhibi- 
tion, arranged by C. H. Eggert and a corps of assistants, in three 
rooms of the Parochial school building. The Moravian Archives, 
the Museum of the Young Men's Missionary Society and many a 
home in the three Boroughs contributed articles of local and general 
historical interest, from precious manuscripts and pictures, to pieces 
of earthen and wooden ware that had survived from the olden times 
of Bethlehem. The collection brought out of hiding many a quaint 
and treasured heirloom and many a curio that revealed how Beth- 
lehem abounds in "old things" that are interesting and that have 
both sentimental and market value. The day closed with a grand 
illumination which was participated in by a very large number of 
citizens, some in the old-time manner by placing rows of candles 
in the windows, others in the most modern style with colored lantern 
effects and artistic use of electric light. Parts of the old cemetery, 
the fronts of the old Church Street buildings and the Moravian 
church presented a beautiful sight produced by rows of many hun- 
dreds of Chinese lanterns. For nearly two hours after night-fall, a 
large part of the population of Bethlehem were on the streets roaming 
hither and thither without the slightest disorder or disturbance, and 
seeminglv without fear that so manv deserted homes might be 



774 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

invaded by the sneak-thief. The ahnost entire absence of drunken- 
ness or riotous conduct, as well as of depredations, throughout the 
festival, was highly creditable to the town and a testimony to the 
lofty and sacred associations awakened by the occasion, imbuing 
it with a tone somewhat in harmony with the spirit of the early 
days.. This subdued the disposition to grosser forms of demonstration 
and offered little attraction to persons whose presence is always 
undesirable, although the visitors were very numerous. 

There was, therefore, no abrupt transition from the scenes at the 
end of that day to the festivities which followed on the Lord's Day and 
brought the commemorative celebration to a close. At half past eight 
o'clock on Sunday morning, the trombonists once more ascended the 
belfry of the church to introduce the final day of the festival with 
stately chorales of suitable character and associations. The customary 
services of the Anniversary Festival furnished the skeleton of the 
day's order, with elaboration of details for this distinguished occasion, 
and one extraordinary service was added. Morning Prayer at nine 
o'clock was in charge of the Rev. Morris W. Leibert, who combined 
with the service a morning discourse on "Bethlehem's three Jubilees,'" 
1792, 1842, 1892; producing from the records many interesting details 
of the fiftieth anniversary and of the centennial, the latter remem- 
bered by many people of the Congregation. Several other ministers 
took part in this service, and the large company of children, again 
filling the raised seats in front, sang with surprising ease another of 
the old Bohemian chorales which probably no one present remem- 
bered having ever heard sung in Bethlehem. It was also one of the 
hymns of Bishop John Augusta, the translation of which begins 
with the lines "Praise God forever ; Boundless is His favor" — hymn 
and tune of a character to rank with Luther's immortal hymn. The 
interest in re-learning fine old chorales, long forgotten at Bethlehem, 
was strongly stimulated by the services of this notable festival. At 
the next service, which took place at half past ten o'clock, the mem- 
orial sermon was preached by the Senior Pastor ; his two colleagues 
taking part in the service and Bishop Rondthaler offering the closing 
prayer. At this service further greetings from the General Directing 
Board of the Church in Europe, from that of the English branch of 
the Church and from the Moravian Ministers' Conference of New 
York, were communicated — also the courteous response of the Presi- 
dent of the United States to the invitation officially sent him by 
the committee in charge. Special exercises were held by the Central 
Sunday-school in the afternoon, with brief addresses by several 



18/7 1892- 775 

visiting clergymen, and at half past two o'clock the love-feast was 
held in the church, which was yet more densely crowded than at the 
preceding service. The Rev. W. H. Oerter officiated and made a 
short opening address. In addition to the greetings and responses 
already communicated, those offered in person and others more 
briefly and informally sent, letters from some other persons were 
read at this service, one being from the Rev. Benjamin LaTrobe, 
then Moravian Secretary of Missions in London. Addresses were 
made at the love-feast by Bishop Rondthaler, who brought greetings 
in the name of North Carolina Moravians, and by the Rev. W. H. 
Rice, of New York City. 

The special service that was introduced took place at five o'clock. 
It was held entirely in German, but its character awakened so much 
interest that fully six hundred persons attended. Nothing in the 
course of the festival revived such pleasing memories of former days, 
when similar services were a part of the regular order at Bethlehem. 
It consisted principally of one of the old services from the German 
"liturgy book," treating of the departed ones and the fellowship with 
the Church Triumphant — chorales and responsive recitative sung 
throughout, solo leader, choir and congregation alternating, with 
full orchestral accompaniment. The sentences intended to be sung, 
under the old arrangement, by the "Liturgus" — the minister leading 
the service — were taken on this occasion by Robert Rau who, in his 
long previous connection with the choir as leading tenor, had often 
rendered this kind of service. When it was decided to introduce this 
feature, it was presumed that it would probably be the last time that 
one of these particular services of the olden times, thus elaborately 
rendered, would be heard in the church. This "Liturgy" was preceded 
by an introductory part led by the Rev. Morris W. Leibert, at which 
the Rev. Dr. Schultze, President of the Moravian College and Theo- 
logical Seminary, and the Rev. George F. Bahnson, Pastor of the 
Schoeneck Church near Nazareth, made addresses. At eight o'clock 
the festival closed with the Holy Communion. The three pastors of 
the congregation participated in the service, with two other ministers 
helping to distribute the elements to a very large number of communi- 
cants who, at the conclusion of this final service, pledged the hand of 
fellowship while they sang the old covenant hymn — renewing the 
ideal bonds of a hundred and fifty years : 

We who here together are assembled, 

Joining hearts and hands in one, 
Bind ourselves with love that's undissembled, 

Christ to love and serve alone : 



7/6 A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Oh, may our imperfect songs and praises 
Be well-pleasing unto Thee, Lord Jesus ; 
Say, " My peace I leave with you." 
Amen, Amen, be it so. 

This story of Bethlehem is finished. The years which followed its 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary present nothing, as yet not alluded 
to, that needs to be introduced in these final pages. The century 
has come to an end since that great festival and, in its closing year, 
there were notable memorial services in the church in which the 
members of the original religious household of Bethlehem have wor- 
shiped since the opening decade of the century — services which once 
more carried the mind back to the pioneers, the first house, the first 
Christmas and the naming of the place. Moravians throughout the 
world remembered, on May 26, 1900, that on that day two hundred 
years before, Nicholas Lewis Count of Zinzendorf was born. In 
appreciative recognition of what he did to restore the ancient pros- 
trate Church of the Brethren, to found its modern villages, schools 
and congregations, in the Old World and the New, and to start it on 
the way to its most distinguished modern work — pioneer evangeliza- 
tion in heathen lands — memorial services were held at many a place 
and these things were spoken about. So at Bethlehem the Zinzen- 
dorf Bi-Centenary called up again the memorable scenes of December 
24, 1741, and June 25, 1742, when his presence graced and his spirit 
ruled the two most notable days in the first years of the goodly town. 

On December 31, 1900, not only Moravians, but large numbers of 
other Christian people, gathered in one and another sanctuary at 
midnight, or kept vigil in many a home, to do homage, at the going 
out of the century, to Him, before Whom Zinzendorf and his brethren 
bowed as the supremely Adorable One, in Whose Name the founda- 
tions of Bethlehem were laid and Who is "the same yesterday, today 
and forever." Marvelous are the changes that time has wrought on 
the historic acres which became the first Moravian property in 
America, since David Nitschmann felled the first tree on the hill above 
the spring, in the conviction that here was the best place yet found ) 
at which to build the town and that here it would arise. The essen- 
tial ideals of religion and brotherhood, of sanctified learning, conse- 
crated toil and highest community of interests that gave genius, aim 
and form to the Christian commonwealth of which those founders 
conceived, are as unchanging and perpetual as the existence of Him 
to Whose glory they built the House of Bread by the springs of living 
water. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



refer to page numbers. 



Accounts, System of, 183. 

Administrator, 269 ; J. C. A. de Schweinitz, 

431 ; L. D. de Schweinitz settles with 
' Bethlehem, 684; office ceases, 689. 
Agapae, 66. 

Allemaengel in danger, 306. 
Allen tract, 57, 6t. 
Allentown, 408, 415. 
Alleys, named, 715. 
American Colonization Society, 647. 
American House, see Hotel. 
Anchor Hotel, see Hotel. 
Antes, Henry, first meets with Moravians, 32. 

Justice of the Peace, 2i I ; ordained, 227 ; 

protests, 248, 249; builds Friedensthal 

mill, 250; as a Moravian, 251 ; leaves 

Bethlehem, 251 ; death of, 295. 
Apothecary shop, see pharmacy. 
Arawacks at Bethlehem, 240. 
Archives catalogued, 409. 
Archives and library, 701. 
Arks on the Lehigh, 642. 
Arrivals from Europe, 17S3-1S00, noted, 

569. 
Artist, J. J- Mueller, 73, 145 ; J. V. Haidt, 

278 ; others, 709, 710. 
Associators, 216, 217. 
Aufseher Collegium instituted, 421, 514, 550, 

666, 677, 681, 688. 
Augsburg Confession received, 27. 



Banks, 739. 

Baptism of Indian converts at Oley, 104. 

Baptist church, 698. 

Baron de Kalb at Bethlehem, 462, 468. 

Bartow's path, 737. 

Bechtel, John, ordained, 96. 

Bell-house, 191. 

Bells, on old Seminary, 191 ; transported 
from Philadelphia, 463. 

Bethlehem, lands, first purchase, 56, 57, 61 ; 
first house 61, 62, 148; named, 79 ; con- 
gregation organized, 137, 138, 139, 140 ; 
center of Moravian work, 148; period of 
extreme exclusivism, 536; fiftieth anni- 
versary, 537; officials, end of eighteenth 
century, 540 ; dominated by Administrator 
Cunow, 568, 595, 607, 610, 615, 636; 

779 



characteristics early in nineteenth century, 
5S3-586; controversy about real estate, 
606-608; changes agitated, 609-61 8; 
anniversary festival, 621 ; clergy, active in 
neighborhood, 62S; first house demolished, 
633 ; controversy with Cunow acute, 636 ; 
L. D. de Schweinitz succeeds him, 637 ; 
new era opens, 639; financial reaction, 
650; complications with insolvent house- 
owners, 650; lease-system becoming im- 
practicable, 652 ; de Schweinitz dies when 
reconstruction pending, 653; ofiicial 
changes, 654 ; P H. Goepp, administrator, 
654 ; gradual change, village organization, 
665 ; water and fire departments, 666- 
668 ; financial depression and great flood, 
671-673, 676; centennial of the town, 
673-675 ; church-village system no lon- 
ger possible, 678-679: lease-system abol- 
ished, 679 ; Borough incorporated, 6So, 
68l ; population, 6S2 ; ground rents and 
sales, 683 ; ecclesiastical re-organization, 
and incorporation, 684-687 ; population, 
1847, by streets, 689 ; census 1890. given, 
760; sesqui-centennial celebration, 766- 
775; close of nineteenth century, 776; 
artillerists, 740 ; guard, 740; Iron Com- 
pany, 723, 26, 758. 

Bible, Bohemian, 15. 

Bible Society, Northampton County, 626; 
Bethlehem Auxihary, 627, 700. 

Birth, first in Bethlehem, 142. 

Bishop, first of renewed Church, 30. 

Bishopthorpe School, 730. 

Bleck's Academy, 659, 705. 

Boarding-school at Bethlehem, 149. 

Boards, general executive, 616. 

Book-store. 191. 

Book bindery, Oerter, 671. 

Braddock, defeat, 297. 

Brass foundry, Lehman, 717. 

Brethren's House, located. 144; built, 197, 
198, 199; declines, 567, 594; financial 
straits, 594, 595 : plans to meet crisis, 
5gS ; plans for use of building, 599; 
establishment closed, S99 ; building re- 
modeled and occupied by boarding- 
school, 600. 

Brewery becomes paper-mill, 643. 

Bridge, Monocacy, 202. 



78o 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Bridges, Lehigh, the first, 545-546 ; canal, 
644; New Street, 735; Broad Street, 
735 i Union Street, 735 ; Main Street, new 
one proposed, 760; tolls cease, Main and 
Broad, 760. 

Brodhead's Station, 738. 

Brotherly Agreement, 24, 292, 511. 

Bruederpflegey, last at Bethlehem, 603. 

Burgomasters, 665. 

Business, varieties opened, 634, 635. 

Butchering stand, Rrause's, 671. 



Calendar, O. S. and N. S., 56, 57, 98. 

Calixtines, 9. 

Cammerhoff, Bishop, arrives, 185. 

Camp Fetter, 742. 

Canal, Lehigh, constructed, 643 ; followed 
by speculation, 650. 

Capt. John, 154, 155 ; death of, ig6. 

Catalpa (Calypso) Island, 632, 716; boats 
and ferries, 716. 

Catechism issued by Bechtel, 96, 97. 

Catherine, the ship and its fate, 108. 

Cavalry, Doster, Wetherill, 743, 744. 

Cemetery, Bethlehem, opened in, 142, 204; 
South side, 191, 389; improved, 434; on 
West side hill, 454, 456, 476, 479; the 
"strangers' row," 477; Nisky Hill; 691 ; 
Fountain Hill, 731. 

Census of Bethlehem, 378 ; in 1771, 425. 

Centennial of Bethlehem, 675 ; of United 
States, 752; cadets. 754; Exposition 
opened, 753; celebrated at Bethlehem, 754. 

Chastellux, Marquis de, visits Bethlehem, 
517; his account of Bethlehem, 518-521. 

Children's Home, South Bethlehem, 756. 
Children's services, 620, 621. 

Choirs, origin of, 197. 

Christiansbrunn, 1 90; Brethren's House 
closed at, 540. 

Christmas Eve vigils, 77. 78, 157. 

Church, second, built, 255. 

Church, the third, building of planned, 
569; different sites dicussed, 570-572; 
need of large church argued, 572 ; John 
Ettwein's interest, 570-573; combined 
water-tower and belfry proposed, 573 ; 
financial plans and estimates, 574; ^''^ 
cleared, 574; contracts let, 573, 574; 
corner-stone laid, 575 ; master-workmen, 
576; building described, 576, 577 ; later 
change of roof, 576; organ built, 578; 
total cost, 578; consecration described, 
578-581 ; later alterations, 690-691. 

Church, Christ Reformed, 694. 

Churches, surrounding country, 563, 628. 

Churches, South Bethlehem, Moravian, 731 ; 
Presbyterian, 732; Episcopal, 732; Ro- 
man Catholic, 733 ; Lutheran, 733 ; Re- 



formed, 733 ; Methodist, 733 ; Evangelical 
Association, 734 ; Hebrew, 735. 

Cicerone, 140. 

Cicerones, Bethlehem, 632. 

Citizen's Hall, 706, 708, 746, 747. 

Civil War, beginning of, 740 ; first Bethle- 
hem volunteers, 740 ; home guards, 741 ; 
divergent sentiments 741 ; war-time ad- 
vertisements, 742 ; woolen army goods, 
743 ; first deaths, Bethlehem troops, 743 ; 
cavalry companies, 743 ; relief association, 
744; school children assist, 744; notable 
gatherings, 745 ; chaplain's aid society, 
746 ; army express, 747 ; funerals of sol- 
diers, 747, 749, 751 ; Union League, 747; 
Gettysburg battle panic, 748 ; Christian 
Commission, 749 ; large sums of money, 
bounty, 750; Lincoln Memorial service, 
750; close of the war celebrated, 750; 
decoration of graves, 751 ; Grand Army 
of the Republic, 752. 

Clergy house, 68. 

Coal, anthracite, discovery of, 640; first 
mining company, 641 ; Bethlehem men 
take shares, 641; experimented with at 
Henry's forge, 641. 

Collegii elucidated, 263. 

Colony of Moravians in Georgia, 106; at 
Heerendyk, 106; to Holstein, lo6; at 
St. Croix, 106; the Henry Jorde, 253. 

Columbus Day, four hundredth anniversary, 
765. 

Comenius, John Amos, maintained the epis- 
copacy, 19; as educator, 19; invited by 
Harvard, 20; his hopes fulfilled, 20; 
•death of, 20 ; three hundredth anniver- 
sary, 765. 

Community House at Bethlehem, 68; en- 
larged, 144. 

Conference of Religions called, 97. 

Congregation Festival changed, 621. 

Congress, Continental, convened, 446; mem- 
bers of take refuge in Bethlehem, 465 ; 
delegates issue order of safe-guard, 467. 

Congressmen at Bethlehem, diary of, 470. 

Continental Hotel, see Hotel. 

Council, Congregation, 550, 615, 619 

Counter-RefoiTnation, 17. 

Craig's Settlement, 46. 

Credit System, Bethlehem, tog. 

Crown Inn, see Hotel. 

Culture, in community, 708. 

Customs, antiquated, distasteful, 583. 



Dansbury, massacre at. 327. 

Deaths, 1785 to 1805, noted, 568. 

Debts, diaconies and church building,6o7,6o9. 

Decoration Day, -751. 

Delawares, alleged conveyance, 48, 49. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



781 



Diacony, General, organized, 380 ; estab- 
lished, 3S5. 

Diaconies, special, 380. 

Diary, George Neisser's, 71 : Neisser begins, 
133, 134, 135, 140; Bethlehem, kept by. 
Immanuel Nitschmann, 512; Jacob Van 
"Vleck, 512; period of little interest, 513. 

Drylands Church, 563. 

Dutch settlements on the Delaware, 23. 

Dutch W. I. Company invites colonists for 
America, 20. 

Dye houses, 253. 



Eagle Hotel, see Hotel. 

Easton, laid out, 264, 266; lots purchased, 
267 ; Indian Council, 343, 347 ; second 
Indian Council. 351; third Indian Coun- 
cil. 355 ; Indian treaty, 388. 

Economy, 178, 293 ; General, 179, 180, 181 ; 
house built, 28 ; ; House, changes in, 
382 ; General, abrogation of, 365, 378-382. 

Eighteenth century, close of, 567. 

Elder, General, 177. 

Eldership, 223, 224, 226. 

Elders' Conference defined, 420 ; Provincial, 
(Provincial Board) 677, 679, 684, 685; 
Unity, 677 ; village, 677. 

Electric light, 759. 

Electric cars, 760. 

Emmaus, 156. 

England, first steps in Moravian establish- 
ment, 26. 

English preaching, 150. 

Ephrata Community, Lancaster Co., 80. 

Ephrata House, Nazareth. 427. 

Ettwein, John, arrives, 278. 

Evangelical Association church, Bethlehem, 
696. 

Evangelistic plans, 156. 

Exclusive System, extreme stage of, 538 
effects of paternalism, 539 ; decadence, 
583 ; people dissatisfied, 585; strong move 
ment to shatter system, 590-592; transi 
tion period opens, 639 ; complication with 
house owners, 650; financial conditions 
hasten dissolution, 678, 079 ; lease system 
abolished, 679; Borough incorporated, 
680, 6S1 ; church re-organized and incor- 
porated. 684-687. 

Executive Authorities, re-organization of 
desired, 616. 

Expenditures, reckless, 270. 



Farm Bethlehem, end of, 629 ; south side, 

sold, 718. 
Farms, laid out, 162, 163, 413. 
Ferry, 161. 
Ferry, rope, 359. 



Ferry, abandoned, 546. 

Fetter House, see Hotel. 

Financial Crisis, 270. 274; 1836-44, 671- 

677. 
Fire-engine, first brought, 400. 
Fire-engines, nateies and quarters, 667, 668, 

714, 756, 760. 
First house, Bethlehem, demolished, 633. 
Fishers, the, 130. 
Fontainebleau, 719, 730. 
Foot- washing, 169. 
Forks of the Delaware, bounds, 45. 
Fort Charles Augustus, 742. 
Forts, frontier, built, 325, 327; evacuated, 

370. 
Foundries, iron, 634, 669, 723. 
Fourth of July, 1820, celebrated, 646. 
Freshet, 202; 1841, described, 672 ; those 

of 1862 and 1869, 736, 737. 
Friedenshuetten at Bethlehem, 192 ; Indians, 

670. 
Friedensville, zinc mines and great engine, 

721. 
Fries, insurrection, 564. 
Funeral first in Bethlehem, 142. 



Garrison, engaged by Zinzendorf, 159; Cap- 
tain, 166; Captain, to Bethlehem, 237. 

Gas works, Bethlehem and South Bethle- 
hem, 714, 761. 

Genieintag^ 67. 

Gemein Haus at Bethlehem, 68. 

Gemcinrath, 550, 615, 619, 665. 

Georgia, first Moravian colony, 34; grant 
of land, 33. 35 ; John Wesley in, 35 ; first 
Indian School, 37 ; Spanish hostilities, 

38, 40; Moravian colony breaking up, 

39, 40; Second Moravian colony, 35; 
Moravians to Pennsylvania, 41. 

Gerard, Chevalier, at Bethlehem ; visit an- 
nounced by Henr}' Laurens, 489. 

Gnadcnhoeh, 426. 

Gnadenhuetten, Mahoning, 193 ; begun, 
193; Indian visitors, 238; massacre, 310- 
318; destroyed, 332; new, 243; Ohio, 
massacre of Moravian Indians, 523. 

Gnademtadt^ 426. 

Gnadciithal, commenced, 190; sold for 
poor house, 668. 

Goepp's financial measures, 668. 

Grace Church, Lutheran, 694. 

Grand Army Post, 752. 

Greenland, mission begun, 29 , N. J., 236 ; 
converts at Bethlehem, 233. 

Greenlanders, at Bethlehem, 240. 

H 

Half-way house, 738. 

Harvard College invites Comenius, 20. 



782 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Harvest, first in Bethlehem, 145. 

Hmisgemeine, 1 29, 17S. 

Heckewelder, John, arrives, 278 ; enters 
mission service, 387. 

Helpers' Conference Provincial, (see Pro- 
vincial Elders Conference). 

Helpers' General Conference of, 616, 619. 

Herrnhut, beginning of, 22; relation to Ber- 
thelsdorf, 24. 

Hirten Lieder von Bethlehevi 97. 

Historic establishments, 670, 671. 

Hoeth's, massacre at, 327. 

Holland, a refuge for persecuted religion- 
ists, 2. 

Home Mission Society, Bethlehem, 649. 

Hope, ship launched, 375. 

Hope, N. J., 236, 543; established, 416; 
settlement abandoned. 586 ; property 
sold, 5S7 ; Ettwein resides at, 511. 

Horsfield, Timothy, Sr., to Bethlehem, 237 ; 
builds house, 257 ; death, 432. 

Hospital, military, moved to Bethlehem, 451 ; 
interments on west side hill, 454 ; Chap- 
lain, Ettwein, 454; second time at Beth- 
lehem, 464; overcrowded, 474; fever 
spreads into the town, 476 ; deaths, few 
on record, 477,479; final removal,; 
expenses claimed by Bethlehem, 482, 730. 

Hotel, the Crown, 190, 359, 360; closed, 
546; sold and demolished, 722; for In 
dians, 192; Indian, 258; the Sun, 
360, 408 ; Gov. John Penn, at, 433 
crowded with military, 455 ; high stand 
ard of, 494: prominent guests, 515, 544 
insurrectionists in custody at, 564 ; fictions 
about dungeons, 565 ; remodeled, 630 
habitues, 631, 632 ; sold and refitted, 71 S 
Eagle, 547, 633, 634, 670; modern im 
provements, 715 ; Anchor, 645, 715 
Fetter House, 645,715; Keystone House, 
715 ; Penn.sylvania House, 715 ; American 
House, 716; Union House, 716; Conti- 
nental, 722. 

Hourly intercession, 141. 

House leases, church-villages, 611. 

Hunter's Settlement, 46. 

Hydropathic Institute, 719. 

Hymnal, Bohemian, 15. 



Indian Mission in Georgia, 29 ; languages, 
students of, 70 ; Mission work planned, 
133; baptism, first in Bethlehem, 143; 
Missions planned, 155 ; languages studied, 
165 ; Mission in New York, 184; houses 
at Bethlehem, 192; Missions extended, 
237 ; Missions in New York and Con- 
necticut abandoned, 239 ; names for mis- 
sionaries, 242 ; Renatus, trial, 401 ; 
Uenatus, killed, 496 ; converts to Wyom- 



ing Valley, 406 ; converts to Ohio, 407 ; 
Indians at Bethlehem, 152; from Sheko- 
meko, 177 ; last notable visit of, 561, 562; 
Friedenshuetten, r'70. 

Independence, Declaration of, 446. 

Indestructible Lancers, 742. 

Industries, reviewed, 388, 3S9, 390 ; more 
liberty in, sought, 614 ; varieties of, 634, 
635 ; established at canal, 645 ; sale of 
concerns to individuals, 669. 

Irene, ship built, 200, 20I ; launched, 288; 
wrecked, 363. 

Irish Settlement, 46, 150; refugees in Beth- 
lehem, 30S. 

Iron foundry, the first, 634 ; Beckel's, 669, 
723, 735 ; Abbott and Cortright's, 723. 

Iron furnaces at canal, projected, 723. 

Iron works, South Bethlehem, 723, 758. 



Jefferson School-house, 762. 

John Wasamapah (Tschoop), 113; death 

of, 193- 
Jones, Paul, at Bethlehem, 521 ; as volunteer 

police officer, 522. 
Justice of the Peace, 139. 

K 

Keystone House, see Hotel. 
Kinderhaas, old and new, 702, 
Kirclientag, Afaehfisc/ier, 621. 
Kobatch, Col., (^Kowats,) at Bethlehem, 4S6. 



La Fayette at Bethlehem. 465. 

Land, Bethlehem, proposed sale of, 606 ; 
relation, Bethlehem Boards, Proprietor, 
Administrator, Unity's Wardens, 606, 
607 ; opposition of Administrator Cunow. 
607 ; his methods, 60S ; crisis, 637 ; he is 
retired, 637 ; is succeeded by L. D. de 
Schweinitz, 637 ; new Administrator ends 
controversy. 638; new agreements signed, 
638; large sales by P. H. Goepp, 6S5, 
718. 

Lapland, Mission attempted, 29. 

Laurel Street Chapel, 763. 

Laurens, Henry, at Bethlehem, 465. 

Law, right of resort to, claimed, 612. 

Lease system, abolition of desired, 61 1 ; 
effected, 679. 

Lehigh Coal Company, 641. 

Lehigh Navigation Company, 642 ; com- 
bined with Coal Company, 642. 

Lehigh University founded, 72S. 

Library, Congregation and .archives, 661. 

Library Association, Bethlehem, 701. 

Limitation clause, house leases, 61 1. 

Lissa folios found, 12. 

Lissa, burnt, iS. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



783 



J-ittle Strength, 166 ; captured by privateer, 

174- 
Liquidation Committee, Moravian property, 

686, 687. 
Log houses, present church site, demolished, 

574- 
London, first Sea-Congregation organized, 

toy. 
Losioig^ 69. 
Lot, use of the, 102, 103 ; objected to, 590, 

591, 611. 
Lovefeasts, 183 ; explained, 66. 
Lutheran Church, Bethlehem, beginning of, 

692-694. 

M 

Maguntsche, 1 56. 

Mail stage, 544, 630, 722, 730. 

Market house opened, 759. 

Marriage, first in Bethlehem, 142. 

Marschall, F. W. von, and party receive 
passports, 507. 

May twelfth, significance of, 621. 

Meniolagomeka, Mission, 244. 

Mennonite Church, 699. 

Methodist, Thomas Webb at Bethlehem, 458. 

Methodists, first movements, 3 ; beginning 
of Methodist Church, 695, 696. 

Militia service, 440 ; inhibition of resisted, 
612. 

Mill, grist, built, 161 ; rebuilt, 256; leased, 
635 ; sold to C. A. Luckenbach, 652 ; 
burnt and rebuilt, 737; saw, 173, 192; 
at Gnadenhuetten, 195, 196 ; Christians- 
brunn, 195, 196; Friedensthal, built, 250; 
oil, 192; burnt, 400; rebuilt, 410 ; at 
Bethlehem, enlarged, 253 ; fulling, built, 
253 ; started, 256, 635, 669 ; road de- 
clared public, 636 ; Uwen Rice, up the 
Monocacy. 643 ; buckwheat 667 ; woolen, 
Doster's, 669, 742. 

Mills, woolen, Monocacy and Moravian, 
669, 742. 

Mission work, plans for, 104; Indian, in 
Ohio, 387. 

Missionaries suspected as Papists, 174, 175, 
176; imprisoned in New York, 177 ; at 
Wyoming in danger. 305. 

Missionary Society, Women's, 625 ; Young 
Men's, 648. 

Monopolies, relaxation of desired, 613. 

Moravian Congregation, settlement with 
Administration and Sustentation, 684- 
686 ; legal incorporation, 687 ; first offi- 
cers under charter, 687 ; last officers under 
old system, 688 ; pastoral changes, 689. 

Moravian Church, titles of, 7 ; sketch of, 7, 
8, 9 ; Episcopate, 8, 1 1 ; Churchmen, the 
five, 22, 28, 30. 

Musgrave Chapel, Presbyterian, 698. 



Music, organ, 171; spinet, 171 ; trombones, 
331 ; organ-builder, Klemm, 363; Tanne- 
berger, 364; organ by Tanneberger, 451 ; 
musicians serve country churches, 563, 
62^ ; Singstundt^n and Liturgien^ ^%\ ; 
devotion to music, 584; first rendition of 
"The Creation," 584; Philharmonic So- 
ciety, 661 ; uses Old Chapel, 661 ; musi- 
cal developments reviewed, 662 ; the 
Wasse7-farth, 662 ; notable musical per- 
formances, 662 ; W. T. Roepper as musi- 
cal director, 662 ; Jedediah Weiss, basso, 

662 ; "band music," 663 ; trombone choir, 
663; first ''band," David Moritz Michael, 

663 ; Columbia Band and Beckel's Band, 

664 ; Ambrose H. Rauch, musical patri- 
arch, 664; Philharmonic Society, decline 
and revival, 708, 763 ; Theodore F. Wolle 
and William K. Graber, 708, 709; Choral 
Union, Liederkranz, Concordia Glee Club, 
Cornet Band, Fairview Band, 764 ; Ora- 
torios directed by J. Fred. Wolle, 764 ; 
The Oratorio Society, 764; Bach Choir 
and Festival, 764. 

Mttsiczim, Collegium, organized, 172, 205. 

N 

Nain, planned, 353 ; Indians threatened, 
393 ; abandoned, 402 ; houses removed to 
Bethlehem, 407. 

Nativity of our Lord, Church of, 697. 

Naturalization Act, 214, 215, 216. 

Nazareth tract. The Rose, purchased by 
Whitefield, 44 ; Moravian mechanics, 
44, 51 ; Court Baron, 147 ; Congregation 
organized, 147, 170; places consolidated, 
378. 

Nazareth Hall planned, 280 ; finished, 282 ; 
dedicated, 348 ; boys' school, 366 ; plans 
elaborated, 404. 

Neisser, George, School-house, 762. 

New-Born, the, 80. 

New Haven, Conn,, Sea-Congregation lands, 
III. 

New London, Conn., Sea - Congregation 
lands, 1 10. 

New Mooners, 80. 

Newspapers, 71 1-7 14. 

Nineteenth Century, close of, 776. 

Nisky Hill Bridge Company, 760; Ceme- 
tery, 691 ; Seminary, 705, 723, 762. 

Nitschmann, John, >-egime, 246; recalled, 
261 ; David, Sr., death of, 365 ; Bishop 
David, death of, 432. 

Noah's Ark, 670. 

Non-combatants, Moravians as, 38, 336, 337, 
434 ; Franklin's letter on, 437. 

Northampton County erected, 266. 

Northampton town, 408. 

Nursery, 231. 



784 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Oath, taking of, 216, 217. 

Odd Fellows' Hall, 695. 

Official changes, 1834-1835, reviewed, 675- 
676. 

Old Chapel, inconvenient entrance, 572 ; 
former interior of, 572 ; becomes library 
and concert hall, 661 ; renovated for wor- 
ship, 691 ; organ in, 691. 

Old Man's place, 209. 

Old South Bethlehem, 645. 

Onondago, Zeisberger visits, 245, 304; Cam- 
merhoff visits, 245. 

Oppeltsville, 719. 

Ordination, first Moravian in America, 36 ; 
first in Bethlehem, 143. 

Organization, interlinked, objected to, 615. 

Overseers, Board of, instituted, 421. 

Oxford, Peter Boehler at, 39. 



Palmetto rattlesnake ticket, 742. 

Paper mill at canal, 643 ; its later uses, 644. 

Park, Main and Church Streets proposed, 

571- 
Parliament, English, and the Moravians, 

27, 28 ; recognizes Moravian Church, 

218-222. 
Parsons, William, sketch of, 265. 
Paternalism, "Pappy Schaaf," 620. 
Patriotic demonstrations, 646, 750, 752, 753- 
Paxton rangers, 403. 
Penn, John, poem on Bethlehem, 552. 
Penn School-house, 762. 
Pennsylvania experiment, Penn's, i, 2, 4. 
Pennsylvania House, see Hotel. 
Pennsylvania Synods, 98, 99, loo, 102. 
Pharmacy, 140, 203; built, 256; apothe- 
cary shop, 543; Otto, Freitag, Rau, 671. 
Philadelphia Koad, 545. 
Physician, Meyer, 146, 150 ; J. F. and J. M. 

Otto, 167, 171, 253; J. M. Schmidt, 279, 

355 ; others, 543, 544, 746, 747. 
Piano factory, Malthaner, 716. 
Pilgtrgemeine, 129. 
Political excitement, 563-565. 
Polyglot singing, 204, 205. 
Population, 1876, l8go, the Bethlehems, 

761. 
Portraits. 

Abbott, Merit, 726. 

Anders, Rosina, 190. 

Beckel, C. F., 686. 

Benade, Andrew, 580. 

Bigler, David, 728. 

Bishop, Chas. D., 666, 686. 

Bishop, D. H., 700. 

Bishop, J. D., 580. 
■ Bleck, E. F., 662. 

Boehler, P., 38. 



Boehler, Elizabeth, 190. 
Borhek, J. T., 726. 
Brickenstein, J. C, 598. 
Brunner, S., 720. 
Cammerhoff, J. C. F., 184. 
Cortright, Ira, 726. 
Day, M. A., 694. 
Desh, D., 720. 
Dodson, W., 764. 
Doster, J. L.. 714. 
Eggert, B . 714. 
Ettwein, ]., 504. 
Fickardt,'F. A., 746. 
Freytag, J. E., 746. 
Frueauff, E. A., 674. 
Garrison, N., 266. 
Goepp, P. H., 674. 
Goundie, J. S., 686. 
Grube, B. A., 266. 
Guetter, H. G., 686. 
Haidt, J. v., 266. 
Heckewelder, J., 522. 
Herman, J. G., 674. 
Horsfield, T., 266. 
Huebener, A. L., 746. 
Jacobson, J. C, 728. 
Jones, M. C, 700. 
Kampmann, L. F., 674. 
Lawatsch, A. Mar., 190. 
Krause, Matth., 674, 
Lehman, B. E., 764. 
Lehman, E. L., 662. 
Leibert, Jas. G., 714. 
Leibert, William, 764. 
Leinbach, A. N., 746. 
Lerch, John, 720. 
Loos, I. K., 694. 
Loskiel, G. H., 580. 
Luckenbach, Abr., 522. 
Luckenbach, C. Aug., 714. 
Luckenbach, J. Chr,, 680. 
Luckenbach, H. B., 714. 
Luckenbach, Jacob, 720. 
Luckenbach, O. A., 764. 
Mack, Anna, 190. 
Mack, J. M., 522. 
Martin. F. A., 746. 
Neisser, Geo., 184. 
Nitschraann, Anna, 190. 
Nitschmann, D., Sr., 64. 
Nitschmann, D., Episc, 30. 
Nitschmann, John, 1S4. 
Oerter, Jos., 2 6. 
Pyrlaeus, J. C, 184. 
Rauch, C. W., 700. 
Rath, J. B., 700. 
Reichel, C. G., 580. 
Reichel, Wm. C, 694. 
Rice. Jacob, 680. 
Rice, Jas. A., 720. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



78s 



Rice, Owen I, 522. 

Rice, Owen II, 6S0. 

Roepper, W. Th., 662. 

Rondthaler, A., 694. 

Schropp, John, 59S. 

Shultz, H". a., 728. 

Schweinitz, de, E, A., 752. 

Schweinitz de, L. D., 598. 

Schweinitz, de, R. W., 764. 

Seidel, Anna T., 190. 

Seidel, C. F.,'728. 

Seidel, Nath., 1S4. 

Spangenberg, A. G., 178. 

Spangenberg, Mary E., 190. 

Stadiger, T- F.. 598. 

Till, J. C", 662. 

Van Vleck, Jacob, 5S0. 

Van Vleck, W. H., 598. 

Washington, George, 518. 

Weiss, Jed., 662. 

Welden, C. F., 694. 

Wetherill, S., 726. 

Wilhelm, B., 726. 

WoUe, Aug., 700. 

Wolle, Francis, 732. 

WoUe, Jacob, 6S0. 

Wolle, Sylvester, 72S. 

Wolle, Theo. F., 6S6. 

Zeisberger, D., 522. 

Zinzendorf, N. L., 20. 
Post, Frederick, his services, 361, 362. 
Postillion, 140. 
Postmasters, 140, 543, 739. 
Fost-ofiice, 739, 761. 
Post roads, 545. 
Potter, first in Bethlehem, 145. 
Prague, "the day of blood," 17. 
Preparatory School, Lehigh University, 762. 
Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, beginning 

of, 698. 
Presidents Adams and Jefferson die, sud- 
denly, 646. 
Printer, Brandmiller, 413 ; others, 710-714. 
Printing, by J. Henry Miller, 74, 95 ; Brand- 
miller's textbook, 120. 
Proprietor, D. Nitschmann, 269; N. Seidel, 

379 ; church estates, final settlements, 

684 ; office ceases, 689. 
Protestant Episcopal Church, first services, 

697. 
Provincial Board (Provincial Helpers' Con- 
ference — General Helpers' Conference — 

Provincial Elders' Conference), 616, 619, 

677, 679 684, 6S5 ; legally incorporated, 

687. 
Publication Office, Moravian, 712. 
Publications, Bethlehem, 711-714. 
Pulaski, Count Casimir, at Bethlehem, 485 ; 

his banner, 487. 
Purysburg, S. C, 39. 

51 



R 

Railroads, Lehigh Valley, 721 ; North Penn- 
sylvania, 722 ; Lehigh and Susquehanna, 
737 : Lehigh and Lackawanna, 738. 

Ratio Disfiplinac, 13, 18, 25, 86. 

Redemptioners, 112, 151. 

Reformed Church, Bethlehem, beginning of, 
692-694; of Poland absorbs Moravian 
refugees, 19. 

Refugees, 329, 334, 342, 347, 39S. 399 ; 495, 
first from Moravia to Berthelsdorf, 22 ; 
from Philadelphia and New York, 454, 
465. 

Renewed Church, birthday of, 24. 

Revolution, soldiers pass through, 441, 449, 

450, 453; prisoners are quartered, 442, 
461, 462 ; prices of commodities, 445, 

451, 460, 493; prisoners pass through, 
448, 461 ; militia called, 44S; militia 
service declined, 449, 472 ; Generals 
Gates and Sullivan at Bethlehem, 455 ; 
military stores deposited, 457, 462, 468, 
470; military supplies furnished, 458, 
468, 469, 474 ; Moravians harassed by 
neighboring squires 461, 472, 473, 496- 
502 ; riotous conduct of soldiers, 479 ; 
arbitrary orders of petty officers, 4S1 ; end 
of causes rejoicing, 526. 

Riedesel, General and Madam, 490-493. 
River bank changed by railroad, 721. 
Road, public, 170 ; Easton to Reading, 287 ; 

roller, steam, 759 ; to mill and tannery, 

635 ; to Nazareth, 259. 
Roads, public. 212, 213. 
Roman Catholic Church, Bethlehem, 697. 
Rose, the inn, 257. 



Sabbath. 150, 152; observance of, 211 ; 
Association, canal boat mission, 699. 

Sacristan, 139. 

Salem Church built and consecrated, 692- 
694. 

Sand Island, industrial and other associa- 
tions, 669. 670. 

Saturday, Sabbatarian observance of, 67, 77, 
132, 133. 

Saucon Valley Churches, 563. 

Saxon Commission, 27. 

Schneppel-Ha2<bt discarded, 617, 618. 

Schoepf, Dr. J. D., naturalist, at Bethlehem, 
524. 

School-master, George Neisser, 149. 

Schools at Bethlehem, 149, 166; Frederick- 
town, 207; closed, 251; Germantown, 
104, 105, 149, 207; Nazareth, 165; 
boarding, for girls, 231 ; first Indian, in 
Georgia, 37; in Pennsylvania, 104; for 
boys, 206, 231; south side, 208; girls, 
205, 173 ; work in Pennsylvania, 149 ; 



786 



GENERAL INDEX. 



plans enlarged at dose of Revolu- 
tion, 528 ; new era in, 533-535 ; various 
transfers, 252, 253; Seminary. Girls, 
second building, 548-551 ; school moved 
into Brethren's House, 600; use made of 
previous building, 601 ; condition of boys' 
school, 601 ; teachers of boys, 602 ; im- 
provements, School Board, 604 ; Cedar 
Street school-house, 605 ; Principals Young 
Ladies' Seminary, 605 ; further improve- 
ment, day-schools, 654, 655 ; era of Public 
Schools, 656 ; Bethlehem school district 
and directors, 656; school tax, 657; 
public and parochial schools combined,, 
657 ; teachers, 658 , Bleck's Academy, 
659 ; sold to Van Kirk, 660 ; citizens vote 
to maintain school system, 660 ; Parochial 
school re-organized separately, 661 ; dis- 
trict school retrogrades, 661 ; day school, 
girls, re-organized, 702 ; various teachers 
Church schools, 702, 703 ; new Parochial 
school building, 703, 704 ; old building 
demolished, 704 ; Ambrose Rondthaler 
and teachers, 704, 705 ; Van Kirk's Nisky 
Hill Seminary, 705 ; Schwartz's Academy, 
705 ; public schools and teachers, 706- 
70S ; teachers' association, 706 ; Wall 
Street school-house, 706; Franklin school- 
house, 707 ; most recent improvements 
and buildings, 761, 762; Centennial, re- 
organization. Young Ladies' Seminary, 
762. 

Schuessele's painting, Zeisberger, Indians, 
701, 76S. 

Schwenkfelder, colony to Penna., 31, 32 ; 
visited by Spangenberg, 37. 

Scripture texts or watchword, 69. 

Sea- Congregation, first, announced, 105 ; 
fitted out in London, 107 ; arrives at New 
York, III ; at Bethlehem, 127; second, 
166; arrives at Bethlehem, 169, third, 
218, 234. 

Seal of Unitas Fratrum, 5, 6, 

Secret Societies, 694. 

Seminary for Young Ladies, 231 ; the old, 
191. 

Sendomir, Consensus of, 13. 

Sesqui-Centennial, Bethlehem, committees 
and preparations, 766 ; Christmas, 1S91, 
specially observed, 767 ; program for June 
24-26, 768 ; medals, 768 ; Bethlehem 
Times, industrial edition, 768; decorations, 
768; observance by schools, 771 ; festal 
eve service, 769; memorial tablets and 
stones unveiled by school children, 771; 
civic celebration, parade, oration, 773 ; 
loan exhibition, 773 ; illumination, 773 ; 
church services, Sunday, 774. 

Shad fishing, 256, 429. 

Shamokin, 194. 



Shekomeko, baptism of Indians, 154; Chr. 
H. Rauch at, 59; Bishop Nitschmann at, 

67. 

Sifting, time of, 186. 

Silk culture, 290, 291. 

Silk industry, 758; Morus MuUicaulis cxaiz, 
758; cocoonery, Neisser house, 758 ; silk 
mills, 75S. 

Silver smiths, 614. 

Simpson tract, purchased, 163. 

Sisters' Plouse occupied, 199; wing built, 
256 ; addition to, 425 ; eastern section, 
431 ; guarded, 455 ; Longfellow's poem, 
485. 

Six Nations vs. Delawares, 48 ; land treaty, 
48 ; treaty with, 245, 

Skippack, Associated Brethren of, 32; 
Wiegner settles in, 32. 

Small-pox, epidemic, 193, 369, 370, 432, 
457 ; inoculation, 432 ; scourge, 755. 

Smithy, 254. 

Society for Propagating the Gospel, 555, 558; 
communications of, with public men, 558; 
with Washington, 559; suffers financially, 
677 ; centennial anniversary, 763 ; Fur- 
therance of the (iospel, 70, 149. 

.Sons of Temperance, 697. 

South Bethlehem beginnings, 718 ; first plots, 
Augusta, Wetherill, 720; called Bethle- 
hem South, 726 ; Borough incorporated, 
726; post-oflice, 726; Gas and Water 
Company, 727 ; fire department, 727 ; 
public schools and school houses, 727- 
728; population, 731, 761. 

South Bethlehem House, 715. 

South Bethlehem, Old, 645, 715. 

Spangenberg consecrated bishop, 177; f^- 
signs inspectorship, 226 ; to Philadelphia, 
230; returns, 262; final leave, 385. 

Stage, line to Philadelphia, 408. 

Steam wagon, coal regions, 642. 

Steel works. South Bethlehem, 725, 758. 

Stenton massacre, 397. 

Store, first general, 257 ; from Oberlin to 
Chr. Heckewelder, 514; new, 547; Chr. 
Heckewelder and Owen Rice, 547, 51.8; 
competition, 633 ; building converted into 
hotel, 633. 

St. Croix, mission begun, 29. 

St. John's Church, Evangelical Association, 
696. 

St. Luke's Hospital, 730. 

St. Paul's Church, Reformed, 694. 

St. Thomas, mission begun, 28 ; Zinzendorf 
visits, 41. 

Streets named, 636 ; population by, 689 ; 
additions, 715; modern improvements, 

759- 
Sullivan, Gen., campaign against the Indians, 

495- 



GENERAL INDEX. 



787 



Sunday, observance of, 131. 

Sunday-schools, epoch of, 622 ; in Pennsyl- 
vania, 623 ; by Moravians, 623 ; first 
opened at Bethlehem, 624 ; at Old South 
Bethlehem, 185 1, and at West Bethlehem, 
1856, 699. 

Sun Inn, see Hotel. 

Supervising Board, externals, Aitfseher Col- 
legium^ 139, 550, 666, 677, 681, 6S8. 

Surinam, mission begun, 29. 

Sustentation Diacony established, 424; en- 
dowed by Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, 
685, 689. 

Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 3. 

Synod, first Moravian, 226; Synod, 1817, and 
General Synod, 1S18, changes at Bethle- 
hem, 609-619. 



Taborites, 9. 

Tannery, sold to Joseph and James Leibert, 
652 ; to William Leibert and Adam 
Giering, 737. 

Tavern, planned, 146. 

Tax Board, 665. 

Taxes, 272. 

Teedyuscung baptized, 244 ; on South side, 
357 ; death of, 358. 

Temperance Hall, 696, 697 

Test Act pressed upon Bethlehem, 459, 471, 
498. 

Text-book, 69. 

Theological Seminary founded at Nazareth, 
587; first professors and students, 587, 
588; close regimn resisted by Prof. Haze- 
lius, 58S; controversy with authorities, 
589 ; Nazareth men participate, 590 ; 
Cunow's ill advised stringency, '590, 512 ; 
Hazelius and others withdraw, 592 ; insti- 
tution re-opened, 593 ; its different quar- 
ters to 1858, Nazareth, Philadelphia, Beth- 
lehem, 593 ; on Broad Street, 660 ; on 
Church Street, 7°6 ; in new buildings, 
Main Street, 762 ; Memorial Chapel, 763. 

Timber yard, 570. 

Tinsmith shop. Christian Luckenbach, 670. 

Tory, word in vogue, 434. 

Township, Bethlehem, erected, 213. 
^ Tract Society, 699. 

Trinity Church, Episcopal, 698. 

Tropes, 23, 177, 227, 228. 

Trout Hall, 408. 

U 

Ulster Scots' Settlement, 46. 

Union Guards and Cadets, 742. 

Union House, 716. 

Unitas Fratrum, Seal of, 5, 6. 

Unity's Elders' Conference, deputies of, in 
Pennsylvania, 581, 586. 

Utraquists, 9. 



Village government in transition, 665 ; new 
plan of streets, 665 ; village functionaries, 
665 ; town meetings, 665 ; forerunners of 
town council, 666. 

Vineyard street school house, Sunday-school 

ia, 699, 757- 
Visitors, 156, 236, 275, 388, 408, 430, 
433 ; B. Franklin, 327 ; Governor Hamil- 
ton, 371 ; Governor of Pennsylvania, 
266, 415 ; Governor of South Carolina, 
415; Rev. C. Oldendorp, 415 ; Governor 
of New Jersey, 416 ; Hannah Callender, 
371-374; notable, S5T ; Duke de la Ro- 
chefoucauld (Liancourt), 552; Portugese 
minister, 629 ; Joseph Bonaparte, 629 ; 
Duke of Saxe Weimar, 629 ; Prince of 
Wied, 645 ; to Bethlehem, 62, 63, 489 ; 
prominent men, 485 ; of note, 521. 



W 

Wachovia, N. C, surveyed, 271. 

Walking purchase, 49, 50. 

Wall Street school house, 706, 762. 

War, Civil, see Civil War; English and 
French, 174; of 1S12, one Moravian in, 
612. 

Wardens' Unity, financial relations to, 594, 
597, 679, 685. 

Washington, Bushrod, mentioned, 505 ; 
Gen. George, visits Bethlehem, 515-517 ; 
letter from, 559; death of, 566 ; Lady, at 
Bethlehem, 495; Wm. Augustine, at Beth- 
lehem, 505. 

Washington Greys, 740. 

Watchmakers, 634 ; shop of Jedediah Weiss, 
734. 

Water cure, Oppelt's, 719, 730. 

Water supply, 202 ; old wooden tower, 573; 
new stone tower. Market Street, 573, 667 ; 
water tower at new church proposed, 
573 ; iron pipes' laid, 666 ; reservoirs, 
Market Street, north of Broad Street, on 
Church Street, 667 ; new pumps, 667, 761; 
South Bethlehem, 761. 

Waterways made available, 428. 

Water- works, 2S8, 289, 290. 

Watteville, John de, arrives, 226 ; second 
visit to America, 52S; results of, 530. 

Webb, Thomas, at Bethlehem, 458. 

Wechquadnach, Mission at, 73. 

Wechquetank, occupied, 368, 369 ; Indians 
threatened, 393 ; abandoned, 399. 

Wedding, the great, 166. 

Weinland house, butcher-shop in, 671. 

Welagomeka, village, 50 ; Capt. John, 59, 
64; Zinzendorf at, 133, 195. 

Wesley, John, in Georgia, 35 ; Methodist 
Church, 696. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



West Bethlehem, Borough incorporated, 
fire department, 756 ; school houses and 
churches, 757 ; Moravian Chapel, 691, 
757- 

Wetteravia, settlement of, 106; enthusiasts, 
1S7. 

Whitefield, Geo., controversy with, 41,52, 54; 
house, 51, 53, 64 ; negro school in Penna., 
43; work resumed, 162; finished, 170; 
visits Nazareth, 206. 

White Mountain, battle of, 1 7. 

Widows' House built, 410 ; Society insti- 
tuted, 411. 

Women's Missionary Society founded, 625 ; 
publishes Indian literature, 626. 

Wyal using, Indians at, 407. 

Wyoming, massacre, 39S. 



Young Ladies' Seminary, second building, 
548-551 ; moved into Brethren's House, 
600 ; proposed removal to Nisky Hill, 
723 ; centennial of re-establishment, 762. 

Young Men's Christian Association, 698, 
700, 708. 



Young Men's Missionary Society, 648, 708. 
Young Women's Christian Association, 702. 



Zinzendorf arrives in America, 72 ; at Phila- 
delphia, 75 ; Germantown, 75, 81 ; eti- 
quette towards Governor, 75 ; with Antes, 
76 ; to Bethlehem, 77; Bi-Centenary, 776; 
at Oley and Conestoga, So ; broad evan- 
gelistic plans of, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85; as 
Lutheran divine, 88, 89, 90 ; various titles 
of, 89, 92 ; as Ordinarius, 91 ; consecrated 
bishop, 91 ; intention of renouncing title, 
92, 93 ; work among the Lutherans of 
Philadelphia, 94 ; antagonized by Boehm, 
95 ; preaches in Germantown, 96 ; final 
Indian tour, 152; at Tulpehocken, 152; 
in Wyoming, 153 ; leaves Bethlehem, 158; 
Philadelphia, 158; New York, 159; 
death of, 376 ; estate, settlement with, 
423. 

Zeisberger, Indians, painting by Schuessele, 
701, 768. 

Zinc Works, 720. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Abbott, Robert A., 735, 747. 

Abraham (the Mohican), 104 300, 301, 
317, 340, 357- 

Abigail (Indian), 317. 

Acrelius, Israel, 290. 

Adams, John, 465, 467, 646, 647. 

Adams, John Quincy, 565, 566, 647. 

Adams, John Quincy, Mrs., 647. 

Adams, Samuel, 465, 467, 485. 

Adolph, Jacob, 273. 

Adolphus, Gustavus, 3. 
-Albrecht, Anton, 163, 213, 286. 

Albrecht, John Andrew, 253, 347, 361, 

Albright, Charles, 749. 

AUeman, Dorst, 413. 

Allen, Andrew, 445. 

Allen, Anna, 484. 

Allen, Ebenezer, 522. 

Allen, Ethan, 484. 

Allen, Mary, 622, 625. 

Allen, William, 44, 47, 52, 54, 61, 94, 
333, 408. 

Allen, William, Jr., 406, 40S. 

Allison, 275. 

Aimers, Anna Rosina, 119. 

Aimers, Henry, 119, 136, 152, 165, 168, 

Aimers, Rosina, 136. 

Anders, Abraham, 550. 

Anders, Anna Rosina, 226, 404. 

Anders, Gottlieb, 167, 317. 

Anders, Johanna, 317. 

Anders, Johanna Christiana, 167, 317. 

Anders, John Daniel, Bishop, 646, 654, 

Anderson, John, 715. 

Anderson, Robert, Major, 745. 

Andreas, Abraham, 390, 655. 

Andrew (the negro), 122, 136, 140, 141, 

Andrew (the negro, No. 2), 1 23. 

Angel, William, 413. 

Anspach, Nicholas, 279. 

Antes, Anna Margaret, 160. 

Antes, Benigna, 296. 

Antes, Elizabeth, 563. 

Antes, Frederick, 71. 

Antes, Henry, 32, 37, 42, 44, 56, 61, 63 
65, 71, 75, 76, 77, 97, 98, 99. loi, 
u6, 117, 121, 127, 139, 140, 155, 
160, 162. 163, 170, 182, 189, 190, 
igS, 201, 202, 203, 206, 208, 211, 



213, 227, 231, 237, 241, 245, 247, 248, 
306, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 25S, 259, 262, 

269, 271, 273, 274, 275, 295, 296, 298, 

367, 390, 563- 
Antes, John, 404. 
Antes, Mary, 404. 
Anthony (the negro), 2S7. 
Anton, Paul, 184. 
Apty, Thomas, 406. 
Arbo, John, 377, 4(4, 431. 
Ari (a mulatto boy), 239. 
Armstrong, Colonel, 348. 
366. Armstrong, John, 457, 465. 
Armstrong, Thomas, 266. 
Arndt, Jacob, 355, 441, 501. 
Arndt, Rosina, 235. 
Arnold, 455. 
Arnold, Benedict, 472. 
Arnold, Rosina, Barbara, 235. 
Ashmead, John, 98, 104. 
163, Aubrey, Laetitia, 44. 

Augusta, John, Bishop, 774. 
Augustus (the Indian), 328, 340. 

Bach, John Sebastian, 764. 
189. Bach, Lieutenant, 492. 

Bachman, H. T., Bishop, 770. 

Bachman, John, 268. 

Bachmann, Ernst, Julius, 364. 

Bachmann, John Philip, 364. 

Backhof, Ludwig Gottlieb, 276. 

Bader, Julia, 4SS. 
675. Bader, Paul Peter, Rev., 37. 

Bader, Philip Christian, Rev., 262, 291. 

Badger, Captain, 260. 

Baehrmeyer, Christoph Henry, 276. 
160. Bagge, Lawrence, 279. 

Bagge, Susan, 534. 

Bahnson, George Frederick, Rev., 674, 675, 
676. 

Bahnson, George Frederick, Jr., 775. 

Bailey, Joseph, 279. 

Baker, William T., 516. 

Baldwin, Cornelius, Dr., 451, 452. 
, 64, Ballenhorst, Margaret, 235. 
115, Banister, Elizabeth, 16S. 
156, Barnes, Mr., 715. 
195, Bartlett, Nathan, 741. 
212, Bartolet, John, 32. 

789 



790 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Bartow, Thomas, 462. 

Bast, Amanda A., 707. 

Baumgarten, George, 253. 

Baus, Christopher, 32, 54, 205. 

Bayard, John, 502, 514 

Bear, W. L., 754. 

Bechler, John Christian, 588, 592, 593, 653. 

Bechtel, Anna Margaret, 568. 

Bechtel, Dorothea, 273. 

Bechtel, Maria Dorothea, 377. 

Bechtel, John, 32, 38, 70, 76, 81, 96, 97, 

102, 103, 104, 105, 122, 140, 207, 232, 

263, 273, 295, 377, 3S9, 523, 592. 
Bechtel, Margaret, 70. 
Bechtel, Susannah, 207. 
Beck, Barbara, 41. 
Beck, David, 41, 42. 
Beck, Henry, 524. 
Beck, Henry Ferdinand, 41, 42. 
Beck, James M., 765. 
Beck, John, 29, 603. 
Beck, John Martin, 542. 
Beck, Jonathan, 41. 
Beck, Maria Christina, 41. 
Beckel, Barbara, (Boeckel,) 465. 
Beckel, Charles Frederick, 634, 654, 660, 

661, 664, 669, 673, 687, 701, 726, 741. 
Beckel, Charles N., 707, 708, 735. 
Beckel, EUzabeth, 550. 
Beckel, Liesel, 465. 
Beckel, Lewis F., 726, 
Becker, J. C, 628, 693, 694. 
Becker, Jost, 32. 
Beear, Theodora, 658, 703. 
Beissel, Conrad, 80, 249. 
Beitel, Frederick, 460, 494, 544, 550, 576, 

590. 
Belling, Augusta, 704. 
Belling, Augustus, 701. 
Benade, Andrew, (Bishop) 541, 569, 574, 

5S3, 588, 589, 590, 592, 596, 597, 613, 

675,685,691. 
Benade, Benedict, 569. 
Benade, Lucia, 703, 704. 
Bender, C. T., 757. 
Benezet, Anthony, 33S, 339. 356, 372. 
Benezet, James, 160. 
Benezet, John Stephen, 37, 63, 70, 73, 75, 

140, 158, 179. 
Benezet, Judith, 73, 115, 136. 
Benezet, Mary, 115, 123, 136. 
Benezet, Stephen, 160. 
Benezet, Susan, 70, 115, 136. 
Benigna Countess (see Zinzendorf ), 533. 
Benigna, Sister, 242. 
Benjamin (Indian), 317. 
Benner, Lewis, 630. 
Benzel, George, 32. 
Benzelius, Archbishop, 227. 
Benzien, Anna Benigna, 278. 



Benzien, Anna Maria, 27S. 

Benzien, Christian Lewis, 278, 587. 

Benzien, Thomas, 278. 

Berg, Joseph, Rev., 563. 

Berger, John, 693. 

Bergmann, Henry, 253. 

Berlin, Abraham, 452. 

Bernard, Duke of Saxe Weimar, 629. 

Berndt, Gottlieb, 234. 

Bernhardt, Wenzel, 234. 

Beroth, Maria Elizabeth, 534. 

Bertolet, Jean, 80. 

Berwig, George, 29. 

Bethencourt, Father, de, 4S5. 

Beula (alias Magdalena), 123. 

Beyer, Anna Maria, 273, 282. 

Beyer, Rosina, 235. 

Beyer, Frederick, 276. 

Beyer, Maria, 235. 

Biddle, Clement, 473, 561. 

Biebinghausen, George, 306. 

Biefel, John Henry, 167. 

Biefel, Rosina, 167. 

Bieg, EUzabeth, 235. 

Bigler, David, (Bishop) 675, 690, 700. 

Big-tree, (Indian Chief), 561, 562. 

Binder, Catharine, 235. 

Bininger, Abraham (see Bueninger), 42, 

587. 
Bininger, Agnes, 704. 
Binns, John, 711. 
Binny, Horace, 651, 652. 
Birkby, James, 559. 
Birnbaum, Joachim, 234. 
Bischofif, Anna Catherine, 136. 
Bischoff, Catherine (Bishop), 119. 
Bischoff, David, 492. 
Bischoff, John David (Bishop), 119, 136. 
Bishop, Catherine, 119. 
Bishop, Charles David, 604, 605, 634, 638, 

667, 687. 
Bishop, David, 126, 137, 263, 296. 
Bishop, Gilbert, 664, 667. 
Bishop, John David, 119, 136, 574. 
Bishop, Jonathan, 665. 
Bishop, S. C. P., 626. 
Bitterlich, John George, 200. 
Bitters, Sally, 728 
Blank, Cornelia, 704. 

- Blech, (Bleck), Charles Adolphus, 593, 675. 

- Bleck, Caroline, 702-703. 

- Bleck, Ernst F., 603, 660, 68r, 686, 687, 

690 701, 709. 
Blum, Anna, 488. 
Blum, Franz, 164. 
Blum, Jacob, 704. 
Blum, .Stephen, 316. 
Bodder, Urias, 743. 
Bodmar, John, 645. 
Boeckel, Frederick (Beckel), 413, 523. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



791 



Boeckel, George Frederick, 465. 

Boehler, Anna Catherine, 272. 

Boehler, Elizabeth, 119. 

Boehler, Francis, 119 253, 272. 

Boehler, Fredericka, 119. 

Boehler, Lewis Frederick, 119, 542. 

Boehler, Peter, 36, 39,40, 42,43, 44, 51, 52, 

54 56, 57, 65, 79, 107, loS, 109, 110, III, 

113, 114, 119, 127, 142, 159, 160, 162, 

169, 170, 174, 1S9, 269, 275, 276, 2S2, 

349, 351. 352, 355. 356, 366, 3&7, 374, 

377, 380, 404, 542, 695, 
Boehler, William, 349, 433, 514, 550. 
Boehler, William, Jr., 573, 574, 576. 
Boehm, John Philip, 95, 96, 102, 149,160,207. 
Boehmer, Margaret, 167. 
Boehmer, Martin, 167. 
Boehner, John, 35, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 

64, 65, 69, 136, 2S9, 415. 
Boehninghausen, John Bartholomew, 295. 
Boehnisth Frederick, 29, 241. 
Boehnisch, George, 32, 37. 
Boehnisch, Matthias, 35, 42. 
Boehninger, David, 208. 
Boehninger, Gertrude, 167. 
Boehninger, John David, 167, 268. 
Boemper, Abraham, 38, 20S, 257, 261, 497, 

568. 
Boemper, Christian, 368. 
Boenicke, Von, 492. 
Boerstler, Jacob, 390. 
Bohle, Christian, 349. 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 629. 
Bonn, Anna Maria, 114. 
Bonn, Herman, 114. 
Bonn, John, 32, 19S, 482. 
Bonn, John Herman, 431, 444. 
Borheck, John Andrew 253, 550. 
Borhek, Ashton C, 763. 
'Borhek, James T., 655, 656, 686, 701, 704, 

714, 730, 739- 
Bossart, Rev. John Jacob, 415. 
Bosse, William, 32 
Boudinot, Elias, 626. 
Bourquin, John Frederick, 569, 576. 
Boutelle, D. C, 710. 
Boutelle, Edward, 710. 
Bowman, Samuel, 697. 
Boyd, Copeland, 643. 
Bracket, Josiah (also Bricket, Brickels, 

Pracket), 235. 
Bradacius, Michael, 11. 
Braddock, General, 297. 
Bradford, William, 74. 
Brainerd, David, 237 238. 
Brainerd, John, 237, 341. 
Brandmiller, Anna Maria, 119. 
Brandmiller, Anna Mary, 167. 
Brandmiller. John, 119, 136, 137, 139, 149, 

167, 170,413, 414, 710. 



Brandner, Anna Maria, 125, 165. 

Brandt, Mary Ann, 400. 

Braun, Elizabeth, 114, 136, 149. 

Braun, Peter, 252. 

Breinig, P. B., 747. 

Brendle, D. F., 707, 708, 750. 

Bremberg, Herr von, 645. 

Brickenstein, H A., 712. 

Brickenstein, John C, 660,676,681,686, 

688. 
Brink, Peter, 2S7, 28S. 
Brobst, S. K., 694. 

Brockden, Charles, 93, 123, 293 324. 
Brodhead, Charles, 715, 720, 724, 726, 

73S. 
Brodhead, Daniel, 296, 310. 
Brodhead, Richard, 724. 
Broksch, Andrew, 168, 200. 
Broksch, .A.nna Elizabeth, 168. 
Broksch, Ehzabeth, 377. 
Brisbane, W. H., 695. 
Brong, Philip, 634. 
Brown, Harry E., 710, 772. 
Brown, Matthew, 542, 68 1, 688. 
Brown, William, 464, 704. 
Brownfield, John, 41, 42, 183, 247, 261, 

263. 
Brownson, Nathan, 465, 467. 
Bruce, David, 72, 73, 136, 147, 239. 
Brucker, John, 119. 136, 159. 
Brucker, Mary Barbara, 119, 136. 
Brunnholtz, Peter, 290. 
Bryan, George, 486, 499. 
Bryant, William, 72. 
Bryzelius, Anna Regina, 119. 
Bryzelius, Paul Daniel, 108, no, 119, 127, 

142, 189, 278. 
Bryzelius, Regina Dorothea, 119. 
Bueninger, Abraham (Bininger), 41,42, 114, 

136, 140, 492. 
Buerger, 115. 
Buettner, Gottlob, 69, 72, 77, 104, 112, 143, 

170. 
Bugge, Ole, 168. 
Bulitscheck, Joseph, 279. 
Bull, Joseph John (Shebosh), 143, 213, 24?, 

522. 
Burke, Joseph, 626. 
Burkhardt, John Christian, 582. 
Burnet, Elizabeth, 534. 
Burnet, .Silas, 473. 
Burnside, James, 41, 42, 170, 267, 268, 296, 

323; 
Burnside, Rebecca, 41. 
Burris, E. E., 734. 
Bush, William IL, 739. 
Busse, Andrew, 295, 41)4. 
Busse, Elizabeth, 261. 
Busse, Joachim, 261. 
Buttner, Albert, 648. 



792 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Caffrey, B. F., 701. 

Callender, Hannah, 372. 

Calvin, John, 13, 150. 

Camnierhoff, Anna, 19S. 

Cammeihoff, John Christopher Frederick 

(Bishop), 185, 189, 191, 199, 201, 202, 

204, 228, 238, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 

249, 250, 251 260, 262. 
Campbell, A. A., 707, 708, 728. 
Campbell, J. A., 728. 
Carr, William, 481. 
Carrick, Elizabeth, 706. 
Carroll, M. W., 706 
Chaffs, James, 477. 
Chandlee, Elma, 708. 
Chase, Edith L., 730. 
Chastellux, Marquis Francais Jean de, 416, 

517-519, 520. 
Chew, Benjamin, 380. 
Chidsey, Charles F., 773. 
Chitty, S. C, 78. 
Christ Anna Mary, 167. 
Christ, Augusta E., 701. 
Christ, George, 167. 
Christ, Matthew (Crist), 630, 654, 658, 703, 

704. 
Christ, Matthew Mrs., 654, 655, 658. 
Christiansen, Hans Christian, 261, 289, 761. 
Christiansen, Martin, 201. 
Christman, Rev. Mr., 697. 
Cist, Charles, 568. 641, 642. 
Clark, Abraham B., 704. 
Clauder, Amos Comenius, 712. 
Clauder, Henry T., 712. 
Clay, Henry, 647. 
Cleaver, A. N., 739. 
Cleveland, Lieutenant, 451. 
Clewell, John Christian, 413. 
Cline Charles, 708, 728. 
Clinton, Governor, 175. 
Coeln, Nicholas, 279. 
Colkier, Jens, 279. 
Cole, Helen, 707. 
Cole, Louisa C, 707. 
Comenius, John Amos, 12, 19, 20, 25, 28, 

29,31, 86, 765. 
Conrad, Melchior, 279. 
Conway, Thomas, 484. 
Cook, John, 167, 168. 
Cooper, C. J., 734. 
Coppee, Henry, 729, 730, 766. 
Cornish, Captain, 35. 
Cornplanter (Indian chief), 561, 562. 
Cortelyou, Jacques, 38. 
Cortright, Ira, 741, 747. 
Cossart, Henry, 218. 
Cowan, Frank, 362. 
Cox, John P., 747. 
Craig, Thomas, 46, 266, 296, 326. 
Craig, William, 266. 



Cramer, Adam, 279. 

Cranz, David, 115. 

Cressman, Edward, 708. 

Crist (see Christ). 

Croeger. Ernest William (Bishop), 510. 

Cropper, John, 481. 

Crosswaite, Captain, 185. 

Cruickshank, James, 549, 568, 574. 

Cruickshank, Widow, 458. 

Cunow, John Gebhnrd, 541, 543, 568, 569, 
573, 574, 575. 576, 578- 588, 589 590, 
592, 595, 596, 598, 600, 607, 608, 609, 
610, 612, 613, 615. 618, 637, 638, 642, 
658, 665, 667, 668, 675. 

Curtin, Andrew G., 74S, 750. 

Gushing, M. F., 713. 

Custrine, Count de, 515. 

-Cyrill, 7, 733. 

Daehne, Ludwig Christopher, 276. 

Dallas, Alexander, 552, 553. 

Daly, Owen, 168. 

Dana, Francis, 470, 471. 

Daniel, Charles B., 708, 724, 725, 739. 

Davenport, J. T., 702. 

David (also Gabriel and Wanab,) 143. 

David, Christian, 21, 22, 29, 233, 240, 241. 

Davis, Benjamin, 168. 

Davis, Jefferson, 724. 

Davis, Solomon, 398. 

Day, M. A., 695. 

Dean, Hannah, 476. 

Dean, Silas, 4S9. 

Dech, John K., 693. 

Degelow, Adolph, 701. 

Delamotte, Charles, 35. 

Delfs, Detlef, 279, 550. 

Delong, J, F., 758. 

Demuth, Anna Maria, 3S6. 

Demuth, Anna Mary, 168. 

Demuth, Christopher, 168, 207. 

Demuth, Gotthard, 34,43, 127, 136, 149, 161. 

Demuth, Gottlieb, 35, 43, 69, 148. 

Demuth, Regina, 35, 43, 136. 

Dencke, Jeremiah, 377, 431, 444, 451, 512, 

542. 
Denny, William, 343, 348, 350. 
Desh, Daniel, 719, 720. 
Desh, George H., 761. 
Desh, O. B., 750. 
Deshler, Lieutenant, 461. 
Desmond, Anna, 105. 
D'Estaing, Count, 489. 
Dettmers (Detmers), Ferdinand Philip Jacob, 

377,414, 431, 568. 
Detweiler, Jacob, (also Dudweiler), 114, 

"5, 136. 
Deventer, John van, (see Van Deventer, 

John), 
Dickinson, John, 401, 433, 515. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



793 



Diemer, Franz Christopher, 279. 

Dietz, Maria Catherine, 273. 

Dietz, Rosina, 235. 

Digeon, David, 168. 

Digeon, Mary, 1 68. 

Disman, Anna Margaret, 136. 

Disman, Margaret (Desmond), 114. 

Dissoway, Israel O., 716. 

Dixon, George W., 660, 757. 

Dixon, Joseph, 544. 

Dixon, William, 236. 

Dober, Andrew, 35, 43. 

Dober, Anna, 35 43. 

Dober, Charles Christlieb, 676. 

Dober, Leonhard, 28, 36, 204. 

Dodson, James S., 772. 

Doehling, John Jacob, 168. 

Doerrbaum. John Philip, 234, 262. 

Dominick, Maria, 235. 

Dommes, August Frederick, 492. 

Doster, Charles Edmund, 750. 

Doster, Herman A., 735. 

Doster, Lewis, 669, 673, 677, 681 

Doster, Lewis, Jr., 737. 

Doster, Paulina L., 701. 

Doster, William Emil, 4S8, 743, 772, 773. 

Dotterer, George Philip, 563. 

Drese, Adam, 78. 

Dressier, Sophia Margaret, 235. 

Drews, Margaret, 235. 

Drews, Peter, 234, 288. 

Dreyspring, Carl Joseph, 279. 

Dreyspring, Charles Jacob, 543. 

Duane, James, 465, 467. 

Dubbs, j. .S., 693, 691. 

Dubois, Abraham, 77. 

Duche, Jacob, 415. 

Duer, William, 465, 467, 507, 

Duiiglison, W. L., 739. 

Duponceau, Peter Stephen, 629. 

Durlach, 261. 

Dust, Gottfried, 279. 

Dyer, Eliphalet, 465, 467. 

Eastwick, Stephen, 576. 

Ebbecke, John Christian, 569, 592. 

Eberhardt, Nicholas Henry, 262, 273 

Eberman, Sarah, 658. 

Eberman, William, 661, 686, 688, 699. 

Ebermeyer, Maria Margaret, 273. 

Ebert, John Christian, 361, 514, 515, 519, 

544, 550- 
Eckerlin, Emmanuel, 156. 
Eckesparre. Adolph, 349, 367. 
Eckhard, Zacharias, 253. 
Edmonds, William, 201, 257, 279, 323, 324, 

335- 343, 359, 37°, 433, 445- 
Edward VI, King, 13. 
Eggert, Benjamin, 681. 
Eggert, Charles H., 769, 773. 
Eggert, Christian, 239, 610. 

52 



Eggert, Matthew, 574, 602, 635, 669. 
Ehrenhardt, Jacob, 261. 
Ehrhardt, John Christian, 167, 168, 201. 
Eichman, Elizabeth, 119. 
Eichman, William, 713. 
Eilerts, John Christopher, 569, 602, 603. 
Eis, Charlotte, 235. 
Elias of Chrenovic, 11. 
Elimalech, Brother, (see Emmanuel Eck- 
erlin) . 
Elizabeth i^Arawack Indian girl), 239, 240. 
Elizabeth, (wife of Teedyuscung,) 244. 
EUery, William, 470. 
Ellis, F , 267, 268. 
Endt, Theobald, 72, gS, 127. 
Endter, John George, 122, 123, 136. 
Enersen, Enert, 234. 
Engel, John Godfrey, 234. 
Engfer, Maria Elizabeth, 235. 
Erd, Justina, 401. 
Erd, Justus, 253. 
Ernst, Conrad. 413. 
Ernst, Jacob, 279. 
Ernst, Walter, 253. 
Erwin, J. F., 701. 
Eschenbach, Andrew, 40, 54, 56, 64, 69, 72, 

75, 77, 129, 136, 143- 

Estaing, Count d', (see d'Estaing Count), 4S9. 

Ettwein, Benigna, 625. 

Ettwein, Benigna, (2), 625. 

Ettwein, Christian, 27S. 

Ettwein, Joanetta Maria, 278. 

Ettwein, John, Jr., 476. 

Ettwein, John, 253, 278, 282, 291, 414, 416, 
431, 439, 441, 444, 449, 450, 451, 453, 
454, 456, 462, 464, 465, 467, 469, 474, 
476, 477, 481, 482, 489, 490, 495, 501, 
502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 511/515, 
516, 517,525, 529, 540, 541, 545, 546, 
551, 553,555, 556, 557- 558, 559, 562, 
568, 569,570, 571, 572, 573- 

Euler, Nicholas, 253. 

Evans, Edward, 98, 105. 

Eyerie, Jacob, 276, 564. 

Fabricius, George Christian, 276, 282, 317, 

318, 319, 332- 
Fahs, Henry, 716. 
Fahs, John, (see Vaas), 210. 
Farquhar, Thomas, 761, 765, 771. 
Feldhausen, Christopher, 254. 
Feldhausen, Henry, 253. 
Feldhausen, John George, 253. 
Feltus, Rev Mr., 62S. 
Fend, Ferdinand (Vend), 262. 
Fend, (" Kiefer") (Vend), 262. 
Fenner, Josephine, 703, 705. 
Fenstermacher, Barbara, 568. 
Ferdinand, II, 17. 
Fermor, Lady Juliana, 281. 



794 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Fermoy, Roche de, 470. 

Fetter, George, 654, 709. 

Fetter, Herman, 715, 742. 

Fetter, Marcus C, 756. 

Fetter, Salome, 704. 

Fichte, Catharine, 235. 

Fickardt, Augustus, 749. 

Fickardt, Frederick, Dr., 746, 747, 748, 749, 

750, 751- 
Fickardt, Frederick, 2nd., 749. 
Finley, Samuel, 481. 
Fiot, Augustus, 719. 
Fischer, Agnes, 167. 
Fischer, Caspar, 279. 
Fischer, Catherine, 235. 
Fischer, Thomas, 167. 
Fissler, Elizabeth, 124. 
Fockel, Godfrey, 253. 
Fockel, John Godfrey, 253. 
Fockel, Samuel, 252, 253. 
Foelker, Adam, 261. 
Foering, H. A., 762. 
Folsom, Nathaniel, 465, 467. 
Foltz, William H., 756. 
Forbes, General, 362. 
Forstier, Charles von, 581, 586, 587. 
Fox, Joseph, 327. 
Fox, Nicholas, 501. 
Fradeneck, Theodore 767. 
Franck, Jacob, 35, 42. 
Francke, August Henry, 279, 454. 
Francke, August Herman, 360. 
Francke, John Christopher, 165, 206, 367. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 74, 95, 97, 326, 333, 

3.^4, 336, 338, 405, 416, 437. 4S9. 510, 521- 
Frederick, William I, 91. 
Freeman, Jacob, 634. 
Freitag, Daniel C, 719. 
Freitag, John Caspar, 569, 602, 603. 
Freitag, John Eberhard, 544, 569, 671, 704, 

746. 
Frey, Andrew, 32, 160. 
Frey, Henry, 32, 306, 332. 
Frey, Joseph, 746. 
Frey, Veronica, (Verona,) 160, 233. 
Frey, William, 32, i6o, 202, 213. 
Freydeck, Von, see Zinzendorf, 8g, 92. 
Freyhube, Andrew, 253. 
Friebele, Christian, 279. 
Friederich, Carl, 304. 
Friedman, Rosina, 534. 
Friis, Jacol), 275, 276, 399, 476, 512, 562. 
Fries, John, 564, 565. 
Fritsche, Henry, 234. 
Fritsche, Anna Margaret, 167. 
Fritsche, John Christian, 167. 
Fritz, Henry, 253. 
Fritz, John, 724, 726, 729, 734, 73S. 
Froehiich, Christian, SA, 19, ("■, 64, 69, 71, 

75, 77, US, 14^, 143, 176, 185, 444. 



Froehiich, Esther Mary, 1S5. 

Fromelt, john^ 400. 

Frueault, Eugene A., 653. 

Frueauff, John Frederick, 542, 562, 563, 569, 

605, 606, 620, 653, 654. 
Frueauff, Lieutenant, 740. 
Fuehrer, Frederick, 518. 
Fuehrer, Harriet, 703, 704, 705. 
Fuehrer, Margaret, 518. 
Fuehrer, Valentine, 51S, 522, 545, 550. 
Funck, Elizabeth, 123. 
Funck, Hans Nicholas, 279. 
Fuss, Lucas, 253. 

Gabriel, (Wanab), 143 

Gallagher, 497. 

Galle, Rosina, 235. 

Gambold, Hector, 123, 16S. 

Gambold, John, 123, 513, 542. 

Gammern, Abraham van, 377. 

Ganimern, Juliana van, 550. 

Gangewere, 712. 

Gardiner, John, 521. 

Gardiner, Sylvester, 521. 

Garrison, Benjamin, 363. 

Garrison, Grace, 373, 519. 

Garrison, John, 360. 

Garrison, Lambert, 2S8, 349, 400. 

Garrison, Nicholas, 38, 41, 124, 159, 160, 
166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 173, 174, 176, 
1S9, 200, 201, 202, 218, 237, 241, 247, 
253, 260, 261, 262, 265, 272, 279, 294, 
295, 390, 400, 416, 430, 519, 523- 

Garrison, Nicholas, Jr., 167, 168, 265, 279, 
294, 373, 519, 709- 

Garrison, Nicholas, 3rd, 519. 

Gates, Horatio, 454, 455, 456, 484,489,490. 

Gattermeyer, John Leonhard, 234, 316. 

Gaupp, Dorothea, 273. 

Gebes, J. Y., 482. 

Geehr, Balthaser, 450. 

Gehbe, Ernst, 569. 

Geib, John, 578. 

Geiger, Valentine, 71. 

Geissenhainer, A. T., 733. 

Geissinger, George 353. 

Geitner, John George, 200. 

Gender, Elizabeth, 398. 

George, Emma J., 707. 

George, Josiah, 693. 

George, Prince, of Anhalt, go. 

Gerard, Conrad Alexander, 489, 490. 

Gerhardt, Catharine, 273. 

Gerhardt, Mary Catharine, 550. 

Gernet, 715. 

Gersdorff, Susan von, 401, 487, 519, 536. 

Gerstberger. Henry, 253, 42S. 

Getter, George, 72S. 

Gideon, (see Teedyuscung,) 244, 

Giering, Adam, 737, 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



795 



Giering, Andrew, 261. 

Giers, Joseph, 279. 

Giersch, Christian, 254. 

Gilbert, Charles T., 720. 

Gillespie, Robert, 477. 

Gimmele, Matthias, 279. 

Ginter, Philip, 641. 

Gladman, Thomas, 40, 109, 167, 168, 169, 

170. 
Glanz, Charles, 746. 
Glover, 455. 
Gmelen, Matthias, 32. 
Godshalk, D. J., 713. 
Goedecke, Lieutenant, 492. 
Goelet, Captain, 260. 
Goepp, Philip H., 654, 668, 674, 675, 681, 

6S4, 685, 686, 687, 688, 689, 693, 714, 

718, 719, 723. 
Goetge, Anna Barbara, 167. 
Goetge, Peter, 167, 361. 
Gold, George, 234. 
Gold, Salome, 576. 

Golkowsky, George Wenceslaus, 214, 276. 
GoU, Jaroslav, I2. 
Goodwin, H. S., 698, 727, 730. 
Gottlieb (an Indian), 196. 
Gottschalk, Matthias Gottlieb, 185. 
Goundie, Moulton, 740, 743, 749. 
Goundie, Sebastian, 610. 
Grabenstein (missionary), 239, 240, 241. 
Graber, William K., 709, 
Grabs, Anna Mar)', 167. 
Grabs, John Godfrey, 167, 360. 
Graeme, Thomas, 235, 266. 
Graeff, Margaret, 124. 
Graeff, Matthew, 124. 
Ciraham, George Thomas, 729. 
Grant, U. S., 750. 
Graff, Gertrude, 261. 
Graff, J. B., 734- 
Graff, John Michael, 261, 2S2, 327, 329, 

367, 386, 529. 
Graff, Justina, 5 28. 
Granville, Lord, 220. 
Grassman, Andrew, 29, 121. 
Green, Abigail, 236. 
Green, Daniel, 632. 
Green, John, 575. 
Green, Nathaniel, Gen., 461, 484. 
Green, Samuel, 236. 
Greening, Elizabeth, 1 68. 
Greening, James, 168, 202, 207, 262. 
Gregg, Eleanor, 123. 
Gregor, Christian, 423, 431. 
Gregory, 9. 

Grider, Orville A., 745. 
Grider, Rufus A., 710, 714, 715, 721. 
Grieve, George, 517 
Groen, John George, 254. 
Groesser, Margaret, 235. 



Groman, Charles, 756. 

Groman, Henry A., 739. 

Grosh, Peter, 634. 

Gross, Andrew, 254. 

Grube, Bernhard Adam, 200, 241, 2S2, 301, 

307, 315, 369. 395, 398, 402, 403, 413, 

542, 557- 
Grube, George W., 756. 
Gruber, John Adam, 32. 
Gruendberg, Helena, 235. 
Gruenewald, Colonel, 450. 
Gruenewald, John Henry, 279. 
Grunewald, Gustavus, 62, 709. 
Guenther, 450. 

Guetter, Henry Gottlob, 634, 645, 681, 701. 
Guth, Henry, 210. 
Gutsier, Eva, 43. 

Haberecht, Gottfried, (Gottlieb,) 34, 43, 63, 

77, 128, 136, 160. 
Haberecht, Rosina, 35, 42. 
Haberland, Anna Helena, 234. 
Haberland, George, 34, 42. 
Haberland, Joseph, 276. 
Haberland, Juliana, 235, 260. 
Haberland, Michael, 3^, 43, 234, 524. 
Haensel, John Christian, 254. 
H.Tga, Godfrey, 569. 
Hagen, F. F., 712, 731, 746, 748. 
Hagen, John, 40, 41, 43, 51, 54, 56, 70, 136, 

147, 241- 
Hagen, John C, 751. 
Haidt, Catherine, 278. 
Haidt, John Valentine, 278, 331, 467, 523, 

709. " 
Halifax, Lord, 214, 220. 
Halftown, (Indian chief), 561. 
Hall, James, 295, 481, 518. 
Hall, William, 160. 
Halpin, Margaret, 728. 
Haman, Adam, 602, 603. 
Hamilton, James, 229, 240, 266, 267, 327, 

371. 3S8, 394- 
Hamilton, J. Taylor, 763. 
Hammer, Anna Maria, 235. 
Hammer, Maria Agatha, 377. 
Hance, William, 699. 
Hancke. Elizabeth, 167. 
Hancke, Matthew, 167, 205. 
Hancock, John, 465, 467, 485. 
Hand, Edward, 484. 
Handrup, Mary, 185. 
Handrup, Vitus, 1S5, 201. 
Hanke, Anna Catharine, 580. 
Hans, Rosina, 235. 
Hantsch, Anna Regina, 168. 
Hantsch, John George, 168, 169. 
Hantsch, Regina, 168. 
Harbatel, Leon, 463. 
Hardie, Thomas, 71, 115, 136, 164. 



796 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Harding, Conrad, 164, 168. 

Hardy, Charles, 343. 

Harnett, Cornelius, 465. 

Harris, Captain, 50. 

Harris, Dr., 415. 

Harrison, Benjamin, 465, 467. 

Harrison, Joseph, Jr., 729. 

Harten, Elizabeth, 119, 136. 

Harten, George, 119, 136, 173. 

Hartman, Squire, 461. 

Hartmann, Frederick, 164, 191. 

Harttafel, Robt., 364. 

Hartzel, Jonas, 214. 

Hasse, John, 464, 549, 568. 

Hasselberg, Abraham, 254. 

Hasselius, Gustavus, 364. 

Hasselmann, Miss, 226. 

Hassfeldt, John Adam, 279. 

Haus, Franklin J., 741. 

Haus, George, 717. 

Haus, William Harrison, 743. 

Hauto, George F. A., 642. 

Haven, Benjamin, 602, 

Haydn, 662. 

Hazard, Erskine, 642. 

Hazelius, Ernst Lewis, 569, 588, 589, 590, 

592, 593. 
Healy, Joseph, 236. 
Heap, Mary, 125. 
Hecht, Pastor, 628. 
Heckewelder, Christian Renatus, 278, 514, 

547, 548, 550, 570, 63.V 
Heckewelder, David, 278. 
Heckewelder, John, 124, 27S, 387, 389, 514, 

522, 549, 595, 629, 704. 
Heckewelder, Johanna Maria, 534, 704. 
Heckewelder, Mary, 27S. 
Heckewelder, Regina, 27S. 
Hege, Balthasar, 254. 
Hehl, Matthew, 262, 273, 277, 282, 303, 

349, 355, 529. 
Heindel, Margaret, 235. 
Heisler, D. Y., 694 
Held, Henry, 710. 
Held, Julius W., 710, 711. 
Held, William, 710, 711. 
Hellerman, Caspar George, 295. 
Hencke, Christopher, 168. 
Hencke, Elizabeth, 168. 
Hendel, Maria Barbara, 235. 
Hennig, Paul, 254. 
Henry, (an Indian), 209. 
Henry, Miss, 658. 

Henry, Matthew, 268, 339 439, 517. 
Henry, William, 501, 502, 503, 590, 641. 
Hent, Valentine, 702. 
Herbst, John, 5S0, 581, 590, 596. 
Herbst, John Henry, 254. 
Herman, George F., 739. 
Herman, John Gottlieb, 653, 674, 675, 676. 



Hermann, Frederick Emmanuel, 253, 261, 

263, 273, 274. 
Hermann, Jacob, 254. 
Hermann, Susan Maria, 253. 
Hermelin, Baron von, 521, 525. 
Hermsdorf, Christian Adqlph, 35, 43. 
Herr, Jacob, 276. 
Herr, Samuel, 254. 
Hertzer, Barbara Elizabeth, 16S. 
Hertzer, John Henry, 168. 
Hess, Charles, 756. 
Hess, Joseph, 693, 719, 720. 
Hesse, Anton, 707, 70S, 713. 
Hessler, Abraham, 167, 513. 
Hessler, Anna Mary, 167. 
Heyd, Inger, 273. 
Heydecker, Jacob, 254. 
Heydecker, John George, 136, 142. 
Heyne, John Christopher, 123, 136, 207. 
Hickel, Judith, 185. 
Hicks, John A., 627: 
High, 255. 

Hilburn, Valentine, 706 
Hillegas, Michael, 641. 
Hillman, John, 574. 
Hinkel, Michael, 630. 
Hinter, Adam, 115. 
Hirst, John, 236. 
Hirte, John Tobias, 167. 
Hirte, Mary, 167. 
Hobsch, Joseph, 200. 
Hoeger, Andrew, 268, 27S. 
Hoepfner, Christian Henry, 254. 
Hoepfner, John Christopher, 167, 170. 
Hoepfner, Mary Magdalena. 167. 
Hoest, Jan Hendrick de, 332. 
Hoeth, Frederick, 36S. 
Hoeth, Mariana, 36S. 
Hoffert, John, 413. 
Hoffert, Samuel, 413. 
HoiTmann, Gottfried, 200, 241. 
Hoffmann, John Gottlob, 254. 
Hoffmann, Thomas, 254. 
Hofmeyer, Pastor, 563. 
Hohmann, John Peter, 234. 
Holland, Samuel, 74- 
Holleschke, Judith 73. 
Holstein, Henry, 32, 140. 
Home, Elizabeth, 124. 
Honest John, (Indian,) 243. 
Hooper, Robert Lettis, 458, 461, 492. 
Hoppes, George, 715. 
Hopson, Ann, 122. 
Hopson, Elizabeth, 107, iig. 
Hopson, John, 105, 114, 332. 
Horn, Andrew, 176, 360, 370. 
Horn, A. R,, 773. 
Horn, Herman, 743 
Horn, Maria Barbara, 401. 
Hornig, Christian, 550. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



'J97 



Horsfield, Joseph, 214, 543, 549, 550, 573. 

Horsfield, Timothy, 38, 201, 237, 247, 257, 
25S, 261, 265, 266, 267, 271, 273, 274, 
275, 278, 287, 296, 301, 306, 310, 313, 
315, 323, 324, 326, 327, 332, 335, 338, 
339, 341, 342, 343, 350, 370, 394, 395, 
397, 398, 432- 

Horsfield, Timothy, Ji'-, 265, 543, 568. 

Houston, James, 456. 

Howe, Bishop, 69S. 

Howe, General, 473 

Hower, Asher, 756. 

Huber, Catharine, 568. 

Huber, George, 514, 54J, 574. 

Huber, John Michael, 37, 123, 125, 136. 

Huber, Mary Magdalen, 37. 

Huckel, Rosina, 122. 

Huebener, Abraham L., 655, 656, 657, 660, 
711. 

Huebener, Lewis, 535, 596. 

Huebener, Ludwig, 145, 164, 389, 482. 

Huebener, Virginia, 70S. 

Huebner, George, 98. 

Huebner, John Andrew, 512, 525, 529, 535, 
S4I, 549, 559- 

Huefifel, Christian Gottlieb, 618, 6:9, 637, 
654. 

Huepsch, Joseph, 279. 

Hummel, Johanna, 40, 41, 43, 44, 64, 69, 
136, 149. 

Hundsecker, Lieutenant, 407. 

Hunt, Alfred, 725. 

Hunt, Samuel, 276. 

Hunter, Alexander, 46. 

Hus, John, 7, 9, 16, 733. 

Hussey, Anna, 488. 

Hussey, Martha, 121. 

Hussey, Robert, 121. 

Hutton, James, 166, 510, 521. 

Ignatius, 271. 

Immig, (Spangenberg,) Eva Mary, 177. 

Ingebretsen, Eric, 254. 

Ingham, Benjamin, 35, 36. 

Irish, Nathaniel, 52, 56, 57, 61, 72, 76, 139, 

154, 161, 163, 164. 
Irwin, Samuel, 696. 
Isaac, (Indian,) 104. 
Israel, Christian Gottlieb, 104, 114, 136. 

Jablonsky, Daniel Ernst, 29, 30, 86, gr, 

Jackson, General, 647. 

Jackson, Hall, 464. 

Jacob, (an Indian,) 104, 401. 

Jacobi, Henry, 71. 

Jacobsen, Christian, 201, 279, 295, 349, 351, 

363, 374, 375, 400, 401. 
Jacobson, E. H., 747. 
Jacobson, H. A., 764. 
Jacobson, John Christian, 593, 685, 693, 696. 



Jaeger, Conrad, 563, 628. 

Jaeger, Joshua, 625, 693. 

Jaehne, Mary Elizabeth, 278. 

Jaencke, Andrew, 254. 

Jaeschke, Juliana, 35. 

Jag, David, 35, 43. 

Jag, John, 279. 

James, (a boy,) 41, 43, 44, 64, 136. 

Jansen, (Jensen,) Jost, 279, 351, 361, 430, 

473, 490, 494, 5'4, 568. 
Jaciuette, Pierre, 562. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 646. 
Jenkins, James, 730, 738. 
Jennings, John, 401, 461. 
Jennings, Solomon, 49, 213, 266. 
Jeter, Tinsley, 720, 727, 729, 730. 
Jewett, H. L., 772. 
Joachim, (Indian,) 316, 317. 
Job, (Tschoop,) 113. 
Johanan, (Zinzendorf,) 242. 
Johannes, (Indian,) 113. 
Johannes, Samuel, 279. 
John, Captain, (Indian,) 50, 59, 133, 154, 

155, 195, 196. 
John, (Greenlander,) 233. 
John, Honest (Indian), 243. 
John, Renatus (Arawack boy), 240, 241. 
John, Wasamapah (Tschoop), 113, 136, 137. 
Johnson, Andrew, 750. 
Johnson, William, 349. 
Johnston, John Taylor, 725. 
Johnston, William, 390, 392. 
Jonathan, (an Indian,) 358. 
Jones, Amanda, 731. 
Jones, John, 235, 260, 266, 286, 355, 465, 

467, 523. 
Jones, Mary, 125. 
Jones, M. C, 648, 701. 
Jones, Paul, 521, 522. 
Jones, Thomas W., 741. 
Jones, William, 653. 
Jordan, John, Jr., 411. 
Jordan, John W., 479. 
Jorde, Anna Margaret, 167. 
Jorde, Henry, 253, 262. 
Jorde, John, 167. 
Joshua, (Indian,) 143. 
Judith, (a Greenlander,) 233. 
Jundt, John Jacob, 605. 
Jung, Marcus, 332. 
Jungman, Christian, 633. 
Jungmann, Anna Margaret, 568. 
Jungmann, John, 550, 672. 
Jungmann, John George, 70, 672. 
Juergensen, Jacob, 276. 

Kalb, Baron John de, 462, 468. 
Kalberlahn, Hans Martin, 275, 276. 
Kampmann, Christian Frederick, 506, 543, 
55°- 



798 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Kampmann, Elizabeth, 704. 
Kampmann, Clarence, 751. 
Kampmann, Lewis F., 689, 690, 706, 712, 

731- 
Kannhaeuser, Elizabeth, 377. 
Kaske, George, 123. 
Keiter, W. D. C, 757. 
Keller, Catharine Barbara, 226. 
Kemper, Thomas, 201. 
Kempsmith, Paul, 767, 773. 

Kennedy, , 255. 

Kennedy, James, 738. 

Kennedy, William, 626. 

Kent, Rudolph, 720. 

Kern, John Christian, 665. 

Kern, John Michael, 512. 

Kern, Maria E., 701. 

Kerner, Anna Rosina, 235. 

Ketteltas, Captain, 160. 

Kiak, (the Indian,) 104. 

Kichline, Colonel, 44S. 

Kichline, SherifiF, 407. 

Kidd, Alice, 707. 

Kidder, Charles Holland, 713. 

Kiefer, Marcus, 306, 314, 413, 568. 

Kindt, Abraham, 706. 

Kiop (the Indian), 104. 

Kirkland, Samuel, 562. 

Klein, George, 277, 332, 360, 401, 404, 408, 

524, 544- 
Klein, John, 279. 

Klemm, John Gottlob, 171, 363, 364, 
Kliest, Daniel, 234, 568. 
Klingelstein, Margaret Catharine, 273. 
Klingsohr, John Augustus, 541, 563, 569. 
Kloets, Christopher, 279. 
Klose, Edwin G., 772. 
Kluge, E. T , 770. 
Kluge, John Peter, 515, 5S1. 
Knauss, Charles L., 6S1, 688, 701. 
Knauss, Christian, 634. 
Knauss, James Edward, 706. 
Knecht, John, 52, 725. 
Knipe, Joseph, 744. 
Knolton, Hannah, 185. 
Knolton, WiUiam Peter, 171, 185. 
Knox, Henry, 461. 
Knox, John, 150. 
Kobatsch, Colonel, 486. 
Koch, Catharine, 123. 
Koehler, John Daniel, 52S, 529. 
Koenigsdoerfer, Gottlob, 275. 
Koffler, Adam, 279. 
Koffler, Anna Maria, 235. 
Kogen, John, 32. 
Kohn, Anna Margaret, 165. 
Kohn, Jacob, 165. 
Koortz, Ellert, 295. 
Kornman, Anna Rosina, 704. 
Kornman, John, 550. 



Kornman, John Theobald, 254. 

Kraemer, Nicholas, 632- 633. 

Krafft, Christina, 123. 

Kramer, J., 696. 

Kramsch, Samuel Gottlieb, 542 569. 

Krause, Andrew, 234. 

Krause, Anna Maria 235. 

Krause, Barbara, 235. 

Krause, Christina, 167. 

Krause, Henry, 276, 671. 

Krause, Henry S., 634. 

Krause, John, 671, 688, 701. 

Krause, J. S., 701. 

Krause, John Samuel, 634. 

Krause, Levin J., 757. 

Krause, Matthew, 167, 6S1, 687, 692, 704, 

7"4 741- 
Krause, Rosina, 234. 
Krause, Samuel, 234, 250, 273. 
Krecker, F., 696. 
Kremper, (Kremp, Krump,) Anna Catharine, 

41,42,492- 
Kremser, Andrew. 167. 
Kremser, Anna Maria, 167. 
Kremser, George, 167. 
Kremser, Matthew, 262. 
Kremser, Ro.sina, 167. 
Kreutzer, Conrad, 569. 
Kriegbaum, John George, 279. 
Krogstrup, Otto Christian, 275, 276, 524. 
Kuehn, Johanna Maria, 121. 
Kuehnest, Christopher, 234. 
Kuerschner, Christopher, 279. 
Kummer, Charles Edward, 705, 7°7, 7°^! 

747- 
Kummer, John Jacob, 595, 604, 605, 654, 

656, 658, 659, 665, 739. 
Kummer, John Gottlob, 658, 675, 676. 
Kunckler, Anna M.ary, 167. 
Kunckler, Daniel, 167. 361, 372. 
Kunkel, Frank, 369. 
Kuntz, Matthew, 262. 
Kuntz, Melchior, 73. 
Kunz, David, 234, 279. 
Kunz, Matthew, 200. 

La, Balm, Mons de, 4S9. 

Laciar, J. D., 712. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 416, 462, 465, 475, 

485, 487, 488. 
Liancourt, Monsieur (Rochefoucauld), 552, 

553- 
Langaard, Andrew, 377. 
Langaard, Susan, 534. 
Lange, John Gottlieb, 254, 568. 
Langley, Erdmuth, 488. 
Langley, Rebecca, 373, 487. 
Langutli, John Michael, 72. 
Lanius, Eva, 550. 
Larisch, Christian von, 29. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



799 



Laramy, Charles, 734. 

Latimer, Mr., 697. 

Lairobe, Benjamin, 160, 775. 

Lauck, John Samuel, 254. 

Laurens, Henry, 465, 467, 489, 490. 

Law, Richard, 465, 467. 

Lawall, Henry, 214. 

Lawatsch, Andrew Anthony, 267, 272, 273, 

274, 386. 
Lawatsch, Anna Maria, 272. 
Lawrence, Justice, 415. 
Lawrence, Mr., 238, 398. 
Leathes, John, 16S. 
Leavitt, J. M., 753. 
Lee, Arthur, 4S9. 
Lee, Charles, 455. 

Lee, Richard Henry 446, 462, 465, 467. 
Lee, William, 454. 
Lefferts, 241. 

Lehman, Bernhard E., 701, 717, 727. 
Lehman, Ernst, 682, 717. 
Lehn, Adam, 575. 
Leibert, Barbara, 207, 568. 
Leibert, Eugene, 710. 
Leibert, James, 652, 673, 677, 688, 714, 715, 

738. 
Leibert, Joseph, 319, 652, 673, 677 

Leibert, Josephine, 658. 

Leibert, Michael, 207, 568. 

Leibert, Morris W., 769, 774, 775. 

Leibert, Richard W., 701, 735. 

Leibert, William, 707, 708, 737, 757. 

Leidy, 715. 

Leighton, John, 168, 257, 360. 

Leighton, Sarah, 168. 

Leinbach, A. N., 747. 

Leinbach, Elizabeth, 114. 

Leinbach, Frederick, 416. 

Leinbach, Johanna, 114 

Leinbach, Mary Barbara, 27S. 

Lelansky, William, 705. 

Lembke, Catharine, 551. 

Lembke, Francis Christian, 278, 282. 

Lemmert, Joseph, 276. 

Lennert, John, 361, 544. 

Lenzner, John Henry, 279. 

Lepus, Robert, 476, 477. 

Lerch, John, 739. 

Leschinsky, Siegmund, 497, 506, 513. 

Lesley, John, 316. 

Leslie, Jesse, 160. 

Levering, Abraham, 361, 544, 592, 602. 

Levering, Charles Joseph, 603. 

Levering, J. M., 769. 

Levering, John, 121, 207, 213, 252, 329, 592. 

Levering, Susanna, 592. 

Levers, Colonel, 473. 

Levers, John J., 716, 735. 

Levers, Robert, 4 86. 

Levers, Theodore F., 714. 



Lewis, Elizabeth, 550, 569. 

Lewis, John, 569. 

Lewis, Samuel, 723. 

Liebisch, Anna, 165. 

Liebisch, Anna Maria, 165. 

Lilliencron, Charles William, 605. 

Limbach, Frederick, 501. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 732, 741, 750. 

Lindenmeyer, Henry, 254, 461, 550. 

Linderman, G. B., 727, 7:9, 739. 

Linstroem, Michael, 279. 

Lisberger, Elizabeth, 226, 241. 

Lischer, John, 360. 

Lischy, John Jacob, 123, 136. 

Little Billy (or Billy Little), 562. 

Livingston, Mr., 277. 

Livingston, Governor, 507. 

Livingstone, Robert, 485. 

Lloyd, H. Evans, 645. 

Lockwood, J. P., 119. 

Loeffler, Dorothea, 401. 

Loeffler, Jacob (John) Frederick, 595, 542. 

Loehans, Valentine, 122, 159. 

Loesch, Herman, 271, 413, 550, 568. 

Loesch, Maria, 706. 

Loescher, Valentine Emsl, 90, 209- 

Loether, Christian Henry, 254. 

London (the negro), 253, 254. 

Longfellow, H. W., 4S5, 488. 

Loos, I. K., 694, 734. 

Loretz, John, 423, 431. 

Loskiel, George Henry, 541, 573, 575, 578, 

579, 580. 589, 595 
Lossing, Benson J., 488. 
Lowther, John, 61. 
Luch, Christian F., 633, 664 741. 
Luch, John Jacob, 633. 
Luckenbach, Abraham, 515, 581. 
Luckenbach, Adam, 413, 524. 
Luckenbach, Andrew, 737, 745. 748. 
Luckenbach, Charles Augustus, 652, 655, 

661, 673, 68i, 686, 688, 704, 708, 714, 

715. 717, 719, 720, 737, 738, 739, 747, 

750. 
Luckenbach, David O., 737, 745, 746- 
Luckenbach, Henry B., 595, 664, 58i, 6S7, 

688, 701, 704, 741. 
Luckenbach, Jacob, 634, 637, 681. 
Luckenbach, Jacob Christian, 595, 670, 6S1. 
Luckenbach, J. Edward, 595. 
Luckenbach, Jane, 739. 
Luckenbach, John Adam, 156, 413. 
Luckenbach, John David, 413 
Luckenbach, John Lewis, 413. 
Luckenbach, Owen A., 739. 744, 745. 
Luckenbach, Reuben O., 595, 690, 710. 
Luckenbach, Samuel, 604. 
Luckenbach, Thomas David, 413. 
Luckenbach, William, 660, 661, 688, 690. 
Ludwig, Anna Catharine, 122. 



8oo 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Ludwig, Carl, 254. 

Lueders, Thomas Christian, 575, 596, 59S, 

S99, 603- 
Lung, Jacob, 254. 
Luther, Martin, 13, 16, 28, 87, loi. 
Lyttle, Robert, 708. 

Maans, Martha, 235. 

Mack, John Martin, 35, 39, 43, 57, 64, 65, 

69, 78, 79. 153, •93. 19S, 242, 307, 308, 

311. 315, 352.368, 369, 3S6. 
Mack, Owen, 353. 
Mackinet, Blasius, 32. 
Magdalena (alias Beulah) 123. 
Magdalena (negro girl), 136. 
Maibaum, Just von, 492. 
Malthaner, John Christian, 717. 
Mann, Anna, 273. 
Mann, William, 756. 
Marchant, Henry, 465, 467. 
Maria (the negro), 163. 
Marschall, Anna Dorothea von, 550. 
Marschall, Frederick- von, 376, 378, 3S0, 

401, 506, 507. 
Marschall, Hedvvig Elizabeth, 376. 
Marshall, Edward, 48. 
Martens, Barbara, 512. 
Martin, David, 202. 
Martin, F. A., 747. 
Martin, Frederick, 41, 167, 278. 
Martin, James, 266. 
Martin, John Hill, 517, 518. 
Martin, Mary Barbara, 278. 
Mary (an Indian), 174. 
Mary Magdalena 122. 
Massner. John George, 254. 
Masslich, 712. 
Mather, Cotton, 20. 
Matlack, Timothy, 473, 502 
Matthew, (Greenlander,) 233 
Matthias of Kunewald, 11. 
Matthiesen, Christopher, 254. 
Matthiesen, Nicholas, 254. 
Mau, Agnes, 492, 
Mau, Samuel, 42, 492. 
Maughan, John D., 728. 
Maxamilian, Prince of Wied, 645 
Maxwell, William, 495, 507. 
May, George, 449. 
Mayer, Alfred Marshall, 729. 
Maynard, J. W., 729. 
McCarty, Andrew E., 714, 715. 
McClatchey, Robert J., 747. 
McCormick, William, 773. 
McCoy, James, 726. 
McEnroe, Michael, 733. 
Mcintosh, Lachlin, 4S2. 
McMahon, James, 726, 727. 
McMinn, 563. 
McNee, Nathaniel, 457, 479. 



Mease, Olivia, 707, 708. 

Meder, John, 569. 

Meeks, I. P., 698. 

Meinung, Abraham, 72. 73, 136, 273. 

Meinung, Charles Lewis, 73. 

Meinung, Judith. 72, 73, 136, 273. 

Meisser, Henry George, 279. 

Meitzler, George, 715. 

Mellick, Andrew G., Jr., 495. 

Melzheimer, (Chaplain,) 492. 

Meinzinger, George Ernest, 295, 351. 

Merck, John, 271. 

Merck, John Henry. 254 

Merkel, George, 32. 

Merkle, Christopher. 254. 

Merrick, David 706. 

Merrill, Lawson, 749. 

Methodius, 7, 733. 

Meurer, John Philip, no, 1I2, 113, 123, 136, 

140. 
Meyer, John Adolph, 121, 126, 136, 137. 140, 

146, 149, 163, 165, 168, 169, 171, 198, 

203, 206, 231, 252, 262, 296. 
Meyer, Jacob, 254. 
Meyer, John Michael, 35, 43. 
Meyer, John Stephen, 254. 
Meyer, Lieutenant, 495. 
Meyer, Maria Agnes, 273. 
Meyer, Maria Dorothea, 121, 165. 
Meyerhoff, Maria, 235. 
Michael of Bradac, 10. 
Michael, David Moritz, 602, 663. 
Michler, Barbara. 167. 
Michler, John, 167. 250. 
Michler, John Wolfgang, 167, 170. 
Michler, Rosina, 107. 
Mifflin, Thomas. 458, 546, 552, 561. 
Miksch, Johanna Maria, no, 121, 136. 
Miksch, John Matthew, 279, 634, 655, 656, 

660, 681,686, 688, 714. 
Miksch Joseph, 634, 669. 
Miksch, (Spangenberg,) Mary Elizabeth, 278. 
Miksch, Michael, no, 121, 126, 136, 148. 
Milchsack, Augustus, 665, 681. 
Milius, John August, 490. 
Miller, George Benjamin, 582, 593. 
Miller, George Godfrev, 535, 592. 
Miller, John Henry, 72, 74, 95, 1 14, 262, 

273, 37,1. 414, 524, 71'- 
Miller, I. L. C, 706. 
Miller, Jacob, 499. 
Miller, Jesse 715. 
Miller, Johanna, 70. 105, n4, 136, 239, 

273- 
Miller, Peter, 47, 70. 
Miller, William F., 739. 
Mingo, Magdalena, 234, 235. 
Miralles, Don Juan de, 4S9, 490. 
Moehring. John Frederick, 319, 569. 
Moeller, John Henry, 167. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



80 1 



Moeller, Joseph, 126, 132, 136. 

Moeller, Rosina, 167. 

Moench, Charles L., 770. 

Molther, Johanna Sophia, 54, 55, 64, 63, 75. 

Mohher, John, 569. 

Molther, Philip Henry, 55. 

Montague, Lord, 415' 

Montgomery', General, 442. 

Montmorenci, Marquis de Laval, 515. 

Moore, Alexander D., 698, 753. 

Moore, James, 16S. 

Moore, Justice, 407. 

Mordick, Peter, 234. 

Morey, Jacob, 461, 496, 499, 501. 

Morgan, Captain, 441. 

Morgan, Edwin Wright, 729. 

Morgan, John, 456. 

Morgan, Thomas, 634. 

Morhardt, Christina. 273. 

Morris, Anthony, 236. 

Morris, Governor, 303, 322, 325, S33, 34', 

343, 485- 
Morrison, Charles, 698. 
Mortimer, Benjamin, 569. 
Motz, Anna Margaret, 434. 
Mozer, John, 167. 
Mozer, Mary Philippina, 167. 
Muecke, Catharine, 167. 
Muecke, John Michael, 167. 
Mueller, Abraham, 354. 
Mueller, Brother, 515. 
Mueller, George Godfrey, 542, 569. 
Mueller, Johanna Magdalene, 142. 
Mueller, John, 136, 142, 295. 
Mueller, John Bemhard, 234. 
Mueller, John Constantine, 542. — 

Mueller, John Jacob, 72, 73, 145, 160, 709. 
Mueller, Joseph, 62, 77, 127, 160, 233, 271, 

274. 
Muensch, John, 254. 
Muenster, John, 168. 
Muenster, Melchior, 254. 
Muenster, Michael, 234. 
Muenster, Paul, 377, 444, 493, 512, 542, 

545, 549, 550, 559- 
Muenster, Rosina, 168. 
Muhlenberg, Gotthilf Henry Ernest, 524. 
Musch, Jacob, 3S0. 
Musgrave, G. W., 69S. 
Musselman, W. B , 699. 
Myers, George H., 715. 

Nace, John, 693. 
Nagle, Charles, 770. 
Nagle, Christian, 574. 
Nagle, John Jacob, 254. 
Napoleon, 629. 
Nathaniel, (an Indian,) 358. 
Naumann, Christopher, 41. 
Naylor, Mary, 728.- 

53 



Neilhock, 254. 

Neisser, Augustin, 22, 35, 43, 69, 71, 127, 
191. 

Neisser, George, 35, 38, 42, 43, 64, 65, 69, 
71, 77, 79, 95, 105, 133, 136, 139, 140, 
149, 160, 16S, 176, 205, 282, 706. 

Neisser, Jacob, 22. 

Neisser, Joseph, 409. 

Neisser, Wenael, 26. 

Nelson, John, 1 68. 

Nemez, Frederick, 9. 

Neubert, Daniel, 125, 126, 165. 

Neubert, Rosina, 165. 

Neuman, Regina, 273. 

Neuville, Chevalier de La, 4S9. 

Newbury, Dr., 544. 

Newcastle, Captain, (an Indian,) 342. 

Newton, Alvin, 644. 

Newton, John, 168. 

Nickum, Jacob, 707, 708, 728. 

Nicodemus, (an Indian,) 243, 341, 358. 

Nicke, George, 168. 

Nicke, Johanna Elizabeth, 168. 

Nielsen, Hans, 363. 

Nielsen, Jeppe, 512. 

Nielsen, Lawrence, 279. 

Nilson, Jonas, 122, 167. 

Nilson, Margaret, 167. 

Nimsch, Emil F., 706. 

Nitschke, Anna Maria, 235. 

Nitschmann, Anna, 54, 55, 63, 64, 75, 136, 
152, 160, 249, 260, 290. 

Nitschmann, Anna Dorothea, 377. 

Nitschmann, Anna Mary, 278. 

Nitschmann, Christian David, 72. 

Nitschmann, David (Bishop,) 8, 22, 26, 28, 
3°, 35, 36, 37, 38, 54, 59, 6i, 63, 64, 67, 
69, 72, 75, 91, 96, 104, 116, 123, 143, 144, 
162, 170, 173, 174, 204, 21S, 233, 241, 
276, 277, 278, 2S3, 290, 409, 431. 

Nitschmann, David, Senior, 54, 55, 57, 65, 
93, 107, 125, 127, 137, 139, 144, 158, 160, 
190, 261, 269, 273, 274, 283, 2S8, 365, 
376, 377, 409, 633, 776. 

Nitschmann, David, Junior, 409, 410. 

Nitschmann, Immanuel, 260, 377, 444, 512, 
542, 56S. 

Nitschmann, John, 29, 218, 233, 235, 245, 
246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 255, 259, 
260, 261, 262, 264, 364, 377. 

Nitschmann, Juliana, 55. 

Nitschmann, Martin, .234, 316, 319. 

Nitschmann, Rosina, 72, 136, 160, 278. 

Nitschmann, Susanna, 316, 319, 359- 

Nixdorff, John George, 16S, 524, 

Nixdorff, John Gottlob, 168. 

Nixdorff, Susanna, 168. 

Noble, Bally, 273. 

Noble, James, 262. 

Noble, Mr., 723. 



802 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Noble, Thomas, 38, 74, 123, 16S, 200, 201. 

Nuernberg, Dorothea, 235. 

Nuss, Helena, 235. 

Nyberg, Laurentius, Thorstansen, 227, 260, 

363. 
Nyberg, Sulamith, 534. 
Nyce, William, 575. 

Oberlin, John Francis, 377, 414, 440, 445, 

497, 5'4- 
Odenwald, John Michael, 254. 
O'Donnel, Mr., 416. 
Oerter, Christian Frederick, 168, 183, 205, 

282, 384, 512, 542, 550, 568. 
Oerter, Elizabeth, 235. 
Oerter, Henry, 746. 
Oerter, John, 654, 671. 
Oerter, Joseph, 610, 671. 
Oerter, William H., 769, 775. 
Oesteriein, Daniel, 114, 136. 
Oglethorpe, James, 35, 37, 214, 215, 219. 
Ohneberg, John George, 167, 190. 
Ohneberg, Susan, 167. 
Okely, John, 124, 257, 261, 266, 269, 273, 

274, 275, 281, 432, 433, 441, 442, 451, 

462, 481, 501, 502, 568. 
Okely, William, 124, 201, 273. 
Old, John, 449. 
Oldendorp, Christian George Andrew, 415, 

416. 
Oliver, Christina, 569. 
Ollendorf, Carl, 280. 
Ollringshaw, Henry, 295, 363. 
Opitz, Carl, 234. 
Opitz, Elizabeth, 167. 
Opitz, Leopold, 167, 170. 
Opitz, Margaret, 657. 
Opitz, Mary Elizabeth, 235. 
Oppelt, Franz Heinrich, 719. 
Oppelt, Gottfried Sebastian, 569. 
Ortlieb, John, 254. 
Osgood, Rev. Mr., 697. 
Ostrum, Andrew, 168. 
Ott, Levi, 737. 

Otto, John Frederick, 73, 167, 170, 171, 568. 
Otto, John Matthew, 171, 203, 253, 254, 256, 

296, 304, 355, 356, 3S8, 404- 432, 521, 

524, 525, 543, 671. 
Otto, Judith Benezet, 568. 
Otto, Mary, 167. 
Otto, Matthew, Jr., 544. 

Packer, Asa, 721, 725, 72S, 729, 730. 

Packer, Harry E., 729, 754. 

Packer, Robert A., 729. 

Packwood, E., 698. 

Pahlen, Anna von, 1 85. 

Palmer, Elizabeth, 226. 

Palmer, Levic, 576. 

Papunhank, (Monsey Chief,) 395. 



Parsons, Anna Mary, 265. 

Parsons, Johanna Grace, 265. 

Parsons, Juliana Sarah, 265. 

Parsons, Robert, 265. 

Parsons, Susan, 265. 

Parsons, William, 265, 266, 268, 272, 281, 

308, 313, 323, 326, 332, 340, 342, 343, 

373, 386, 519, 568. 
Partsch, John George, 167, 311, 312, 316, 

3'7,3i8. 
Paitsch, Susanna Louisa, 167, 316, 317. 
Paulsen, Catharine, 2CO, 235, 241. 
Paulus, Christian Gotllob, 544, 569, 630, 

633, 634, 642. 
Payne, Elizabeth, 16S. 
Pajne, Jasper, 168, 182, 207, 213, 237, 247, 

263, 266, 310, 361. 
Paxnous, (Paxinosa,) 300, 305, 306, 340, 

341, 356- 
Peale, Edmund, 488. 
Pech, Catharine, 119. 
Pell, John Peter, 254. 
Pendleton, Edmund, 521. 
Penn, John, 44, 47, 275, 401, 404, 4o8, 433, 

445, 515- 
Penn, John, (poet,) 552. 
Penn, Richard, 44, 275, 433. 
Penn, Thomas, 37, 44, 214, 215, 220, 236, 

265, 266, 280, 281, 552. 
Penn, William, 3, 44, 48, 61. 
Penry, Polly, 373. 
Pepy, Jo, (an Indian,) 341. 
Perkin, Griffith, 728. 
Peter, (an Indian,) 243. 
Peter, Good, 562. 
Peter, Christian Godfrey, 569. 
Peter, John Frederick, 377, 444, 512, 535, 

541, 557, 559, 603. 
Petermann, Henrietta, 262. 
Peters, Joseph, 746. 
Peters, "Richard, 211, 235, 243, 297, 323, 

326. 
Petersen, Hans, 252, 254, 280. 
Peterson, Gertrude, 125. 
Petrus, (an Indian,) 395. 
Peysert, Robert, 739. 
Pezold, John Gottlieb, 124, 136, 260, 263, 

268, 273, 279, 370, 386, 387. 
PfaiT, Christopher Matthew, 90. 
Pfahl, Rosina, 122, 272. 
Pfeiffer, Christian, 200. 
Pfeil, Frederick Jacob, 254. 
Pfohl, Christian Thomas, 569. 
Pfohl, Samuel Thomas, 593. 
Pharo, Job, 716. 

Phillips, VVilliam, 490, 493, 494. 
Pierce, President, 724. 
Piesch, Anna Johanna, 125, 273, 376. 
Piesch, John George, 29, 107, 114, 125, 273, 
Pitschmann, George, 234. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



803 



Pitzmann, John Michael, 254. 

Fleischer, Fredericka, 401. 

Podiebrad, George, 9, 21. 

Polk, William, 475. 

Pomfret, Lord, 266. 

Pomp, Nicholas, 563, 628. 

Pomp, Thomas, 563. 

Poor, Enoch, 495. 

Poppelwell, Richard, 263. 

Post, Christian Frederick, 124, 136, 177, 242, 

262, 279, 301, 304, 305, 309, 310, 361, 

362, 387. 
Pott, William, 32. 
Potter, Alonzo, 697. 

Potter, Eliphalet Nott, 729, 730, 732, 750. 
Powell, Martha, 121. 
Powell, Joseph, 73, 121, 154, 155, 202, 257, 

315,332- 
Powell, Samuel, loS, 121, 191, 260, 464. 
Powell, Thomas, 457. 
Presser, Martin, 254, 316. 
Preston, Colonel, 451. 
Preuss, 457. 
Price, Thomas, 442. 
Pricket, Josiah, 235. 
Priessing, Jacob, 254.. 
Pritchett, Martha, 121. 
Pudmensky, Catharine, 37. 
Pulaski, Count Casimir, 462. 485, 486, 4S7, 

488. 
Purcell, James, 726. 
Pury, John Peter, 39. 
Pyrlaeus, John Christopher, 70, 77, 94, 95, 

104, 112, 127, 136, 140, 160, 165, 172, 

177, 204, 205, 242, 251, 262. 
Pyrlaeus, John Christopher, Jr. ,482, 513, 581. 
Pyrlaeus, Sarah, 581. 

Radley, A. W., 714, 735. 

Raikes, Robert, 622, 623. 

Ralffs, Marcus, 254. 

Ralston, Robert, 627. 

Ramsburger, Anna, 235. 

Randolph, John, 647. 

Rantzau, von, 492. 

Rascher, Henry, 35, 42. 

Rath, J. B., 694, 695, 734. 

Rau, Albert G., 766, 771. 

Rau, David, 747. 

Rau, Robert, 775. 

Rau, Simon, 649, 664,1671, 687. 

Ranch, Ambrose H., 664, 701, 704, 714, 

720, 724. 
Ranch, Charles W., 714. 720, 724, 725. 
Ranch, Christian Henry, 40, 41, 54, 56, 59, 

67, 70, 77, 104, 112, 114, 136, 142, 152, 

154, 157, 165, 242, 401. 
Ranch, Edward H., 712. 
Rauch, John Frederick, 465, 604, 605, 610, 

638, 655, 656, 657, 686, 687. 



Rauch, Reuben, 741. 

Rauch, Rudolph, 739. 

Rauch, William, 704. 

Rauschenberger, Jacob, 603. 

Rebstock, Anna Catharine, 235. 

Redelerburg, Helena, 273. 

Red Jacket, (Indian chief,) 562. 

Reed, Isaac, 452, 458, 462. 

Reed, John, 508. 

Reed, Joseph, 457, 507, 514. 

Regnier, John Francis, 42. 

Reich, Anna M., 706. 

Reich, Clara V., 707. 

Reich, John Christian, 542, 543, 547, 550, 

573- 
Reichard, David, 167. 
Reichard, Elizabeth, 167. 
Reichel, Charles Gotthold, 535, 559, 569, 

596, 610. 
Reichel, Dorothea Sophia, 704. 
Reichel, Edward H., 648. 
Reichel, John Frederick, 506, 507, 508, 509, 

511, 514, 599, 619, 621, 625. 
Reichel, Levin T., 93. 
Reichel, William C, 153, 190, 251, 258, 268, 

359, 397, 518, 703, 710, 718, 753. 
Reincke, (Reinke,) Abraham, 176, 295, 296, 

588. 
Reinke, Abraham, Jr., 513, 588,596, 597. 
Reinke, Amadeus A., 648, 700, 710. 
Reinke, Samuel, 588, 602, 603, 676, 689, 

709, 745- 
Renatus, (an Indian,) 401, 402, 404. 
Renner, John George, 234 
Repsdorff, Baron von, 433. 
Reuss, Count XXVIII, 271. 
Reuss, Countess Erdmuth Dorothea, 21. 
Reuss, Magdalena Elizabeth, 234. 
Reuter, Christian Gottlieb, 349 
Reuz, Magdalena, 167. 
Reuz, Matthew, 167, 205, 240. 
Rice, Edward, 676. 
Rice, Elizabeth, 121. 
Rice, Jacob, 610, 633, 63S, 686, 687, 688, 

714^ 736. 
Rice, James A., 633, 714, 739. 
Rice, Joseph, 604, 605, 630. 
Rice, Joseph A., 701. 
Rice, Josephine C, 701, 739. 
Rice, Lydia, 703. 
Rice, Owen, 1st, 121, 126, 203. 
Rice, Owen, 2nd, 547, 548. 
Rice, Owen, 3rd, 54S, 604, 605, 610, 618, 

633, 638, 656, 657, 660, 676. 
Rice, Owen, Capt., 746. 
Rice, Sarah, 658. 
Rice, William, 633 

Rice, William Henry, 745, 746, 748, 775. 
Richards, J. W., 693. 
Richling, John Henry, 254. 



8o4 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Richter, John, 254. 

Richter, John Christopher, 234. 

Ricksecker, Jacob, 55°- 

Ricksecker, John, 664. 

Riedel, Catharine, 35, 37. 

Riedel, Frederick, 34, 35, 37, 42 

Riedesel, Frederick Adolph, 490, 492, 493. 

Riedesel, Madame, 490, 492, 493, 494, 505. 

Rieser, George Charles, 706. 

Rillmann, Andrew, 234. 

Rinck, M. Henri Albert, 729. 

Ring, Philip Henry, 280. 

Rippel, John Michael, 295. 

Risler, Jeremiah, 339, 595. 

Ritner, Joseph, 656. 

Rittenhouse, David, 462, 515. 

Ritter, Ellen, 707, 70S. 

Ritter, Emma, 708. 

Ritter, Francis, 32. 

Ritter, Rebecca S., 707. 

Robbins, Gottlieb, 201. 

Robins, Esther Mary, 115, 136, 143. 

Robins, Johanna, 124. 

Roberts, Edward, 725. 

Rochambeau, 517. 

Rochefoucauld, Duke de la, 552. 

Rodney, Rev. Mr., 629. 

Roebuck, Jarvis, 168, 185, 201. 

Roemelt, Gottfried, 200. 

Roepper, C. W., 764. 

Roepper, William Theodore, 661, 662, 6S2, 

688, 689, 701, 714, 720, 729. 
Roesler, (Roessler,) Godfrey, 254, 306, 332. 
Rogers, Jacob, 265, 272, 303, 386, 387. 
Rohleder, Martin, 2S0. 
Rokycana, 9, 10, 11. 
Rondthaler, Ambrose, 704, 705, 741. 
Rondthaler, Edward, 769, 774, 775. 
Rondthaler, Emanuel, 582, 588. 
Rondthaler, J. Albert, 732. 
Ronner, John Reinhold, 124, 136. 
Rose, Catharine, 43, 123. 
Rose, Joseph, 612. 
Rose, Mary, 37. 
Rose, Peter, 34, 37, 43. 
Roseen, Anna Margaret, 185. 
Roseen, Sven, 185. 
Rosengarten, J. G., 462, 515, 524. 
Rolh, Anna Maria, 235. 
Roth, John, 295, 403, 630. 
Rothe, Pastor, 27. 
Rothrock, Sarah, 582. 
Rubel, Christina, 122. 
Rubel, John, 361. 
Ruch, Catherine, 273. 
Ruch, Michael, 295. 

Rudolphi, John Frederick, 544, 569, 596. 
Ruede, Herman, 703, 704, 705, 706, 711, 

712, 747. 
Ruenger, Daniel, 254. 



Ruetschi, Conrad, 146, 163, 173. 

Ruhe, Joseph, 463. 

Rundt, Carl Godfrey, 262. 

Rupp, Daniel, 268. 

Rush, Benjamin, 438 475. 

Rusmeyer, Albrecht Ludolph, 275, 276. 

Russell, Pastor, 628. 

Samuel, (an Indian,) 174. 

Sandys, Lord, 220. 

Sangerhausen, Anna Margaret, 234. 

Sankey, 693, 694. 

Saur, Christopher, 37, 74, 97, loi. 

Sauter, Michael, 254. 

Sarah, (an Indian,) 317. 

Savitz, George, 574. 

Saylor, O. L., 734. 

Sayre, Robert H., 721, 727, 729, 730, 735, 

747- 
Sayre, William H., 727. 
Saxon, Samuel, 280. 
Schaaf, Anna Catherine, 167. 
Schaaf, Christian Frederick, 541, 542, 569, 

596, 620, 622. 
Schaaf, Jeremiah, 200. 
Schaaf, John, 167. 
Schaeffer, Margaret, 123. 
Schaeffer, Nicholas, 360. 
Schaemel, 261. 

Schaub, Divert Mary, 167, 257. 
Schaub, John, 167, 207,257. 
Schaus, Frederick, 268. 
Schaus, lohn Adam, 146, 161, 163, 169, 

195, 268. 
Schenk, Martin, 280. 
Schilling, Regina Dorothea, 119. 
Schindler, George, 2S0, 482, 546. 
Schindler, Thomas, 72. 
Schippang, Herman, 708. 
Schlabach, George, 668. 
Schlagenteufel, Captain, 492. 
.Schlagentruft, Captain, 492. 
Schlegel, John Frederick, 234, 513. 
Schlosser, 261. 

Schmaling, William Christopher, 295, 363. 
Schmatter, Anna Maria, 235. 
Schmich, Anna B., 707. 
Schmick, John Jacob, 261, 2S2, 306, 307, 

315, 369, 403, 407, 550. 
Schmidt, Anton, 242, 306, 314, 318, 482, 

573- 
Schmidt, Benjamin, 244. 
Schmidt, Christian, 200. 
Schmidt, Hans Jacob, 295. 
Schmidt, Henry Immanuel, 593. 
Schmidt, John, 234, 330. 
.Schmidt, John Christopher, 234. 
Schmidt, John Michael, 203, 279, 404, S90, 

593- 
Schmidt, Jest, 32. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



805 



Schmidt, Melchior, 234, 348. 

Schnall, John, 165. 

Schnall, Michael, 165. 

Schneider, Daniel, 29. 

Schneider, George, 121, 125, 140. 

Schneider, Jacob, 574. 

Sclineider, John, 234, 635. 

Schneider, Martin, 234. 

Schneider, Paul, 200. 

Schneider, Verona, 550. 

Schnell, Leonard, 121, 125, 136. 

Schneller, Charles, 605. 

Schneller, David Peter, 602, 604, 605, 638, 

654, 656. 
Schober, Andrew, 167. 
Schober, Hedwig Regina, 167. 
Schober, John Michael, 39, 42. 
Schoedler, Daniel E., 707, 713. 
Schoen, Henry, 254. 
Schoepf, John David, 524, 645. 
Schoute, Andrew, 201, 279, 2S7, 28S, 351, 

363- 
Schropp, Abraham S., 746, 749. 
Schropp, Anna Margaret, 167. 
Schropp, John, (Warden,) 380, 513, 541, 

545, 547, 549, 568, 573, 574, 57^, 577, 

641, 660, 
Schropp, Matthew, 167, 190. 
Schubert, Augustus, 374. 
Schuepge, Anna Rosina, 119. 
Schuetze, Anna Dorotliea, 168. 
Schuetze, Christian, 168. 
SchuUng, Rosina, 235. 
Schulius, George, 38, 39, 43. 
Schultz, John Henry, 569. 
Schultz, Maria Rosina, 488. 
Schultz, Samuel, 682. 
Schultz, Theodore, 653. 
Schultz, (a widow,) 273. 
Schultze, Carl, 234. 
Schultze, Godfrey, 234. 
Schultze, Rev. Dr. (Augustus), 775. 
Schuster, Felicitas, 273. 
Schuyler, Philip, 457. 
Schwartz, Charles H., 705. 
Schwartz, Christian, 254. 
Schwartz, Gottfried, 254. 
Schwartz, Magdalena, 235. 
Schweigert, George, 254, 317. 
Schweinitz, Christian Frederick von, 514. 
Schweinitz, Edmund de, 12,556, 700, 713, 

750, 751, 753, 763- 

Schweinitz, Eniil A. de, 676. 

Schweinitz, John (Hans) Christian Alexan- 
der de, 376, 423, 431, 461, 503, 505, 506, 
507, 528, 543, 550, 557, 559. 561, 637, 
647, 654, 668. 

Schweinitz, Lewis David de, 227, 606, 618, 
629, 637, 638, 646, 652, 653, 675. 

Schweinitz, Paul de, 770. 



Schweinitz, Robert de, 763. 

Schweisshaupt, John, 234. 

Schweitzer, George, 716. 

Schweitzer, Lawrence, 98. 

Scott, Moses, 481. 

Scull, Nicholas, 49, 209, 266, 297, 302. 

Seaman, Henry J., 714. 

Seem, John, 726. 

Seidel, Anna, 377. 

Seidel, Charles Frederick. 63, 517, 582, 588, 
591, 603, 604, 605, 606, 625, 626, 628, 
630, 646, 647, 654, 674, 675, 676, 6S9, 
690, 691, 693. 694, 704. 

Seidel, Christian, 304, 305, 306. 

Seidel, John Henry, 295. 

Seidel, Juliana, 235. 

Seidel, Nathanael, 47, 125, 136,170,241, 
250, 260, 261. 269, 273, 327, 343, 35', 
366, 376, 377, 414, 415, 417, 423, 437, 
444, 445, 446, 452, 454, 506, 523, 529, 

541, 57°- 
Seidensticker, Oswald, 74. 
Seidlitz, Elizabeth, 401. 
Seidner, Margaret Barbara, 273. 
Seiffert, Andrew, 234. 
Seiffert, Anton, 34, 36, 39, 43, 44, 57, 62, 

64, 69, 105, 116, 127, 133, 136, 139, 149, 

152, 162, 165, 170, 172, 189. 
Seiffert, John, 200. 
Sehner, 251. 

Selfridge, Alexander, 751. 
Selfridge, James L., 740, 744, 751. 
Selfridge, Kate, 753. 
Selfridge, William W., 747. 
SenefF, George, 295. 

Sensemann, Anna Catharine, 122, 136, 317. 
Sensemann, Christian, 590. 
Sensemann, Gottlob, 122. 
Sensemann, Henry Joachim 122, 126, 136, 

141, 203, 209, 253, 311, 312, 315, 316, 

317, 368, 369, 522. 
Serra, Gomez, 274. 

Serra, Joseph Correa de, 629. 

Seward, William, 43, 64. 

Seybold, Anna Maria, 136. 

Seybold, Matthias, 35, 43, 64, 65, 69, 128, 

136, 145, 148. 
Shabash, (Abraham,) the Indian, 104. 
Shanks, Captain, 562. 
Sharpless, Stephen Paschall, 729. 
Shaw, Joseph, 125. 
Shebosh, (John Joseph Bull,) 143, 213, 307, 

318, 343, 369- 
Sherbeck, Paul Jansen, 254. 
Sherman, Lucas, 477 
Shewkirk, Gustavus, 439. 

Shikellimy, John (old chief) Thachnachtoris, 

306, 307. 
Shinier, Conrad, 738. 
Shingas, the terrible, 306. 



8o6 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Shippen, William, 415, 451, 454, 456, 464, 

474- 

Shirley, General, 297. 

Shultz, C. B., 770, 771. 

Shultz, Henry A., 676, 686. 689, 690, 693, 
694, 702. 743, 750. 

Sidman, Colonel, 473. 

Sieg, Paul, 209. 

Siegmund, Jacob, 634. 

Siever, Carl, 528. 

Sigley, Owen B., 713. 

Simpson, Bishop, 696. 

Sinclair, Sir John, 388. 

Sitgreaves, Samuel, 626. 

Sitgreaves, Susan, 626, 627. 

Sitkovius, Bishop, 30. 

Skinner, Alexander, 459- 

Smith, David Zeisberger, 648, 703. 

Smith, Sam Captain, 53b. 

Smouth, Anna Elizabeth, 404. 

Smouth, Edward, 194, 404. 

SmyUe, John, 727, 730, 732. 

Snyder, Jonas, 749. 

Snyder, M. H., 708. 

Snyder, N. Z., 734. 

Soelle, George 275, 276. 

Sommers, Benjamin, 40, 41, 43, 44, 64, 136. 

Souders, Gottlieb C, 707, 708. 

Spangenberg, Augustus Gottlieb, 32, 34, 35, 
36. 37, 38, 39. 55. 65, 70. 71, 74, 76, 77, 
79, 80, 90, 92, 107, 108, 109, 119, 123, 
125, 127, 152, 159, 160, 168, 172, 173, 
176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 
1S4, 1S5, 189, 194, 197, 198, 201, 202, 
205, 209, 217, 223, 225, 226 228, 229, 
230, 233, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 259, 
262, 263, 264, 267, 269, 270, 271, 272, 
273, 275, 276, 277, 278, 280, 281, 283, 
2S8, 290, 291, 292, 294, 295, 302, 307, 
308, 313, 315, 323, 325, 326, 327, 328, 
330, 333, 334, 336, 337, 33^^ 339, 340, 
3*1. 343, 344, 349, 35°, 355, 35^, 366, 
369, 376, 377, 384, 385, 386, 387, 404, 
437, 505. 5'o- 

Sperbach, Johanna Rebecca, 273. 

Spinner, Sarah E., 707, 708. 

Spinner, Susan, 706. 

Sprogle, Christian Ludwig, 265, 332. 

Sprogle, John Henry, 265. 

Sproh, Christian, 280. 

Stach, Christian, 29. 

Stach, Matthew, 28, 233, 241. 

Stach, Thomas, 226, 233, 234, 240, 24I. 

Stadiger, John Frederick, 542, 569, 595, 596, 
597, 598, 599, 638, 653, 676. 

Staehle, Balzer, 575. 

Stauber, Paul Christian, 254. 

Stauffer, W. H., 734. 

Stark, John George, 280. 

Steckel, John Frederick August, 632. 



Stedman, John, 32. 

Steinhauer, Daniel, 604. 

Steinhauer, Henry, 603, 604. 

Steinman, Anna Regina, 234. 

Steinman, Anna Salome, 401. 

Steinman, Christian Frederick, 234. 

Steinman, George, 715, 716. 

Stenton, John, 19I, 397, 401. 

Sterhng, General, 455. 

Stem, Pastor, 693. 

Stephen, Bishop, (Waldenses,) II. 

Stettner, John, 280. 

Steuben, Frederick von, 462, 485. 

Steup, Francis, 253. 

Steup, Samuel, 574, 604, 633, 665. 

Steup, Sophia, 253. 

Stevens, William Bacon, 697, 729, 732. 

Stiefel, George, 32. 

Stiemer, Anton, 280. 

Stiles, President Ezra, 291, 551. 

Stirling, Thomas, 408. 

Stoll, Anna, 234. 

Stoll, John George, 234, 550, 568. 

Stoltzenbach, Augusta, 703. 

Stoltzenbach, William, 745, 751. 

Stonehouse, George, 108. 

Stout, Abraham, 746, 747. 

Stout, Franklin C, 745, 748, 749. 

Straehle, Rudolph, 234. 

Straub, Samuel, 738. 

Strasburger, Pastor, 628. 

Strauss, Abraham, 254. 

Strayhom, A. M. 734. 

Stuber, Michael, 742. 

Sturgis, Joseph, 311, 312, 314, 316, 317, 318, 

450. 
Stutzer, Captain, 492. 
St. Maine, Count de, 515. 
St. Victor, Count de, 515. 
Sullivan, John, (Gen.), 455, 495, 496. 
Sutton, Mr., 459, 503. 
Swihola, John Jacob, 506, 507. 
Swindells, J. T., 753. 
Sydrich, John Daniel, 47, 254. 
Talbot, Dr., 36. 
Tamaqua, (an Indian,) 306. 
Tanneberger, Anna Rosina, 122, 136. 
Tanneberger, David, 35, 43, 234, 363, 364, 

45J, 578. 
Tanneberger, John, 35, 43. 
Tanneberger, Michael, 122, 123, 136. 
Tassawachamen, (an Indian,) (Joseph,) 143. 
Tatemy, (Moses,) (Indian chief,) 154, 155, 

195, 355 
Tatemy, ^William,) (an Indian,) 355, 356. 
Taussig, Lizzie, 707. 
Taylor, David, 737. 
Taylor, George, 448, 451. 
Taylor, Jonathan K., 745, 747. 
Taylor, Mahlon, 749. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



807 



Taylor, Ralph, 36. 

Taylor, Robert E., 749 

Teedyuscung, (an Indian,) 50, 244, 299, 

305. 306, 339, 342, 343, 347, 348, 353, 

354, 356, 357, 35», 359, 395- 
Tennent, Gilbert, 238. 
Theodorus, Brother, 164, 254. 
Thomas, David R., 695. 
Thomas, Francis, 545, 550, 632. 
Thomas, (Captain,) 34. 
Thomas, Governor, 93, 154, 174, 214. 
Thomas, John, 254, 482. 
Thomas, (the negro,) 2S7. 
Thomas of Prelouc, 1 1 . 
Thompson, Charles, 557. 
Thompson, Richard, 477. 
Thorn, William, 294. 
Thorpe, Edward, 280, 495. 
Thrane, Amadeus Paulinus, 377, 4-14, 512. 
Thumhardt, Godfrey Henry, 544. 
Thiimstein, von, (see Zinzendorf,) 92, 552. 
Thurston, W. W., 756. 
Tiersch, Mary, 442. 
Tiersch, Paul, 400, 442. 
Tiersch, Elizabeth, 275. 
Till, Jacob, 275, 664. 
Till, John Christian, 602, 603, 610,654, 710, 

716. 
Till, Joseph, 664. 
Tillofson, Nils, 569. 
Tietze, Herman J., 702. 
Toellner, Christian Frederick, 276. 
Toeltschig, John, 22, 26, 34, 38, 43, 273, 

409. 
Toeltschig, Judith, 35, 43. 
Tombler, Charles C, 635, 655, 656, 719, 

739 
Tombler, Edward, 743, 744. 
Tombler, Oliver, 719. 
Tombler, William D., 739. 
Tommerup, Matthias, 377, 463. 
Togood, Notley, 168. 
Traeger, Fredericka, 701, 703, 704. 
Tschatschi, Tomo, Chief, 36. 
Tschoop, (Job, John, Wasamapah,) 113, 137, 

142, 193, 596. 
Turck, John de, 98, 104. 
Turk, Daniel de, 449. 
Turner, Elizabeth, 122. 
Turner, John, 122. 
Turner, Joseph, 61. 
Turner, Joshua, 695. 

Uhlmann, Dorothea, 235. 
Ulrich, William, 762, 765. 
Unander, Eric, 290. 
Unger, Anna, 534. 
Unger, Maria, 534. 
Utley, Richard, 168. 
Utley, Sarah, 168. 



Vaas, John, (Fahs,) 210. 

Vail, John Bloom, 750. 

Valentine, 115, 136. 

Van der Bilt, Jacobus, 201. 

Van der Bilt, Jean, 201. 

Van de Venter, John, 200. 

Van Kirk, Benjamin, 660, 705, 706. 

Van Vleck, Charles A., 592, 593, 676 

Van Vleck, Henry, 260, 375, 432, 473, 507, 

568. 
Van Vleck, Henry J., 648, 649, 690, 732. 
Van Vleck, Jacob, 260, 506, 507, 512, 515, 

516, 520, 541, 542, 545. 549, 557, 562, 

566, 587, 58S, 589, 590, 591, 596, 607, 

638, 653. 
Van Vleck, Maria, 260, 
Van Vleck, William Henry, 577, 587, 592, 

603, 625, 628, 681, 687, 689, 690, 694, 

704, 719. 
Vaux, George, 372. 
Vend, Ferdinand (Fend), 262. 
Verbeek, John Renatus, 5S1, 5S6, 587. 
Verdriess, Hartmann, 360. 
Vetter, Jacob, (Fetter,) 162, 164, 332. 
Vleit, James, 738. 
Vogt, Divert, 235. 
Voick, Cari, 316. 
Vollert, Jost, 209, 268. 
Vreda, Lieutenant, 492. 
Vriehuis, Margaret Catherine, 704. 

Wade, Johanna, 185. 
Wade, John, 185, 226. 
Wade, Mary, 569. 
Waeckler, Juliana, 273. 
Wagenseil, John Andrew, 254. 
Wagner, Abraham, 32. 
Wagner, Anton, 167, 1 70. 
Wagner, Daniel, 575- 
Wagner, Elizabeth, 167. 
Wahl, George, 695. 

Wahnert, David, 122, 136, 160, 167, 169, 
170, 173, 234, 241, 272, 273, 275, 279, 

377, 387- 
Wahnert, Mary Elizabeth, 122, 136, J47, 

167, 234. 
Walker, William N., 706. 
Wallace, Captain, 71. 
W'alp, Isaac, 714. 
Walp, Jost, 500, 501. 
Walp, "William, 756. 
Wanab, (Gabriel,) 143. 
Wapler, Juliana Esther, 377, 534. 
Warner, Anna Dorothea, 704. 
Warner, John C, 634, 654, 657. 
Warner, Massa, 545, 550. 
Warner, Miss, 658. 
Warner, Samuel S., 70:. 
Warner, William H., 64S. 
Warrall, Hanna, 265. 



8o8 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



Warren, John, 451, 452, 

Wasamapah, John, (Tschoop,), 137, 142, 

154, 193. 
Waschke, Anna, 35, 43. 
Waschke, George, 34, 43. 
Waschke, Juliana, 43. 
Washington, Bushrod, 505, 64.7. 
Washington, George, 361, 455, 462, 468, 

471, 473. 4S4, 495, 505, 507. 5>5, 516, 

517, 518, 544, 558, 559, 561, 56-, 566- 
Washington, Martha, 457, 495, 505. 
Washington, William Augustine, 505. 
Watteville, Anna Dorothea, de, 506. 
Watteville, Frederick de, Baron, 72. 
Watteville, John de, 72, 226, 227, 228, 229, 

230, 237, 241, 242, 246, 274, 506, 528, 

529,531,532, 533 536, 555- 
Weaver, Lizzie J., 707. 
Webb, Thomas, 458, 461, 695. 
Weber, Andrew, 254. 
Weber, Christian, 32. 
Weber, George, 104, 114, 136, 174. 
Weber, John C, 688, 701, 704, 7^7. 
Weber, Mary Apollonia, 550. 
Weber, Mary Elizabeth, 104, 136. 
Weber, Tobias, 209. 
Webster, Benjamin C., 721. 
Wedsted, Christian, 276, 319, 332. 
Weicht, Peter, 276. 
Weicht, Susanna, 235. 
Weigand, John, 522. 
Weinecke, Charles, 280, 496, 550. 
Weinert, Dorothea, 167. 
Weinert, John Christopher, 167. 
Weinland", David, 576, 681, 688. 
Weinland, John Nicholas, 234. 
Weiser, Conrad, 37, 152, 153, 156, 165,699. 
Weiser, George, 125. 
Weiser, Reuben, 699. 
Weiskotten, F. W., 695. 
Weiss, Anna Maria, 488. 
Weiss, Elizabeth, 658. 
Weiss, Francis, 575. 
Weiss, Frederick, 368. 
Weiss, Jacob, 641. 
Weiss, Jedediah, 634, 655, 65o, 662, 664, 

682, 687, 701, 741, 748. 
Weiss, John George, 602. 
Weiss, Jonas Paulus, 160. 
Weiss, Lewis William, 294, 467, 482. 
Weiss, Margaret Catharine, 167. 
Weiss, Matthew, 167, 202, 550, 568. 
Weiss, Paul, 602. 

Weiss, Timothy, 645, 654, 656, 664, 673. 
Welden, C. F., 694, 700, 745. 
Welden, Frederick A., 707. 
Wells, Zebulon, 634. 
Welton, Dr., 36. 
Wend, Magdalena, (Fend, Vend,) 115, 136, 

160. 



Wendover, Mary, 42. 

Wennel, Samuel, 168. 

Wenner, U. J., 753. 

Wenz, Jacob, 32. 

Wenzel, Catherine, 235. 

Wenze!, Pastor, 693. 

Werner, Christian, 125, 136. 

Wernharaer, Margaret, 272. 

Wertz, Gertrude, 707. 

Werwing, Maria Wilhelmina, 401, 410. 

Wesa, Peter, 306. 

Wesley, Charles, 35. 

Wesley, John, 35, 695. 

Westraann, John Eric, 1 85, 201, 205, 262. 

Wetherhold, Jacob, (Wetterhold,) 191, 396, 

397- 
Wetherill, John Price, 720. 
Wetherill, Samuel, 701, 720, 729, 744, 751. 
Wetzel, John, 461, 497. 498, 499, 500, 502. 
Wharton, Joseph, 720. 
Wharton, Thomas, 499. 
Whipple, William, 470. 
White, Bishop, 628. 
White, Josiah, 642. 
Whitehead, Cortlandt, 730. 
Whitesell, Andrew, 722. 
Whitesell, John David, 722. 
Whitefield, George, 40, 41, 43. 44, 51, 52, 

54, 62, 63, 64, loi, 109, 206, 230, 270. 
Whitman, Elmira, 728. 
Whittemore, James, 758. 
Wiegner, Christopher, 32, 34, 37, 38, 42,44, 

56, 57, 62, 76, 77. 
Wiesner, George, 136, 160. 
Wilbur, EUsha P., 726, 727, 735, 739, 754. 
Wilhelm, Benjamin, 747. 
Wilhelm, E. T., 747. 
Wilkes, Martha, 121. 
Will, George, 449. 
Wilier, Lorenz van, 239. 
William, Frederick I, 91. 
Williams, William, 465, 467. 
Willy, Joseph, 280. 
Wilmot, Aquila, 476. 
Wilson, Hugh, 266. 
Wilson, J. H., 707, 747. 
Wilson, John J., 746. 
Wilson, Justice, 296, 326. 
Wilson, Wilham, 714, 739, 740, 746, 748. 
Wilt, Owen R., 728. 
Wittenberg, Jens, 2S0. 
Wittke, Matthew, 125, 136, 550. 
• Wlach, John, 9. 

Woehler, George Henry, 635, 645, 646, 6S2. 
Wolf, George, 656. 
Wolle, Augustus, 633, 648, 707, 708, 723, 

724, 725, 726. 
Wolle, Francis, 658, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704. 
Wolle, Jacob, 630. 
Wolle, J. Fred., 764, 770. 



INDEX OF PERSONS. 



809 



Wolle, John Frederick, 633, 661. 

Wolle, Peter, 587, 588, 674, 748. 

Wolle, Sabina, 707. 

Wolle, Sylvester, 702, 714, 736, 749. 

Wolle, Theodore F., 708, 753, 764. 

WoUmuth, Charles, 769. 

Wolson, George Stephen, 275. 

Wolson, Susan Rebecca, 275. 

Wood, Archbishop, 733. 

Wood, Joseph, 475,481. 

Woodford, General, 465, 469. 

Woodring, Nicholas, 575. 

Worbass, Peter, 276, 314, 361, 374, 416. 

Wuertele, John, 2S0. 

Wuetke, Samuel, 200. 

Yarrell, Ann, 122. 
- Yarrell, Anna Maria, 514. 
Yarrell, Thomas, 375. 
Yeates, Edmund, 49. 
Yerkes, David I., 190, 722, 726. 
Yerkes, Sarah, 624. 
Yohe, Caleb, 634, 670, 6Sl, 715, 741. 
Young, Mr., 473. 
Yost, A. F., 713. 
Yungberg, John, 541. 

Ysselstein, Isaac Martens, 62, 142, 146, 158, 
208, 210, 231, 232, 242, 254, 672. 

Zaeslein, Joseph, 569, 592. 

Zander, John William, 70, 77, 105, 136, 142, 
143, 239, 240, 241. 

Zeidig, Johanna Christiana, 265. 

Zeisberger, Anna, 69. 

Zeisberger, Anna Dorothea, 168, 

Zeisberger, David, 35, 39, 40, 43, 64, 398. 

Zeisberger, David, (the missionary,) 43, 44, 
57, 64, 65, 69, 136, 148, 154, 15S, 177, 
242, 243, 259, 261, 277, 279, 304, 305, 



306, 309, 310, 312, 315, 343, 387, 395, 
398. 403, 407. 409, 506. 522, 559, 568, 
626, 629. 
Zeisberger, David, (No. 3,) 291, 377, 398, 

512. 

Zeisberger, George, 69, 16S. 

Zeisberger, Melchior, 22. 

Zeisberger, Rosina, 35, 43, 64, 69, 136. 

Zentler, Conrad, 625. 

Ziegelbauer, Eva Mary, 177. 

Ziegenfuss, C. O., 713. 

Ziegler, Curtius Frederick, 276. 

Ziegler, David, 5 1 5. 

Ziegler, Samuel, 634. 

Zillman, Henry, 280. 

Zinzendorf, Benigna, von 72, 89, 105, 107, 
136, 149, 160, 226, 230, 233, 271. 

Zinzendorf, Christian Renatus von, 187. 

Zinzendorf, Erdmuth Dorothea von, 44, 281. 

Zinzendorf, Nicholas Lewis von, 8, 21, 22, 23 
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 41, 
45, 55, 56, 67, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 
77. 7S, 79, So, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, ' 
90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 
loi, 102, 103, 104, 105, III, 113, 114, 
116, 117, 118, 119, 122, 125, 127, 128 
129, 132, 133, 135, 136, 137, 139, 141 
142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 149, '50, 151 
152, IS3, 154, 155, 156, 158, 159. 160^ 
162, 165, 169, 170, 171, 176, 177, 179. 
185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 197, 199 
200, 207, 218, -219, 220, 223, 224, 225 
226, 228, 233, 234, 237, 242, 246, 249, 
250, 264, 270, 273, 277, 280, 281, 290. 
349, 352. 353. 3(>3, 376, 3S4, 409, 417- 
41S, 423, 506, 525, 533, 552, 562, 633 
776. 

Zorn, Jacob, 593. 

Zwingle, 13, 



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